“Eating disorders are serious mental illnesses and not fancy lifestyle choices.”
Could food be possibly harmful to anyone? If you don’t eat properly, regularly, and timely, or if you eat anything anytime then yes, food could be harmful to you in ways you couldn’t have possibly imagined.
Eating disorders mean nothing but persistent eating habits that sabotage your mental, physical and emotional health. They can have serious life harming effects on people of all ages and genders like they can disturb your lifestyle, hamper your growth and risk your health to a great extent.
Major eating disorders
Let’s understand some of the major eating disorders.
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Anorexia Nervosa
It is defined as self-starvation or excessive weight loss and focuses on people who are determined to lose fat and get a shaped body. People suffering from this disorder fear weight gain and as a result, reject food and are keen to eat minimum. It can be cured by a proper nutritional diet and psychological therapy.
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Bulimia Nervosa
This is the complete opposite of Anorexia. People suffering from this syndrome are characterized by excessive eating, mostly in secret. They feel hungry all the time even though their body has got its share of food. Such people eat in enormous amounts and then get rid of it through vomiting, enemas, laxative abuse, or over-exercising so it becomes a continuous cycle of bingeing and purging.
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Binge Eating Disorders
This is somewhat similar to Bulimia with the only difference being that it does not include purging. People suffering such conditions eat in excessive amounts in short time durations beyond the comfort of being full.
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Night eating syndrome
This had made a recent appearance and people observing this condition feel a lack of appetite in the morning or day and they overeat during the night. It’s like an opposite eating cycle that any normal human being follows. It is not just an eating disorder but is also a sleep disorder and it messes up with the usual sleep cycle and drains the body of the energy required. Other types of eating disorders consist of a combination of symptoms of the above-mentioned syndromes.
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Effects of eating disorders
These eating disorders can affect your mental health and cause anxiety, overthinking, stress or depression. You can worry yourself about your food intake which can either be too low or too high. Your obsession to stay in shape or with food can result in these eating problems.
Our body is like a machine that needs the proper fuel to function appropriately. Now, if it does not get the exact amount of fuel that it needs at the exact time, then an imbalance will be created. It will work but it won’t produce desired results. You’ll go through laziness, dizziness, loss of energy, mood swings, etc. Which will upset the people around you and hamper your individual growth and health and will deteriorate your body in the long run.
In other words, you’ll not be able to have a long healthy life because of your eating illnesses and it will rob you of any chance that you have at being truly happy from the outside as well as the inside.
Studies have shown that approximately 10% of people across the globe suffer from eating disorders. 26% of the people suffering from eating disorders tempt to commit suicide. 10,200 people die each day because of eating disorders. It implies that one person dies every 52 minutes.
Conclusion
Amongst the chaos of our super easy lives and our never-ending responsibilities, we have forgotten that we have to look after ourselves as well because no one will do it for us. Our body fights the diseases and shields us and therefore it becomes our priority to take care of our body and provide it with sufficient nutrition, timely and give it proper rest and water and environment.
“And as I looked at myself in the mirror, my body said to me, ‘Be my friend and shield me from the ailments of this modern world as I am your friend and I wait for you.’ “
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