Giunto 1

Lilly Giunto
Mr. Hull
Honors English II

Eating Disorders
There are approximately 320 million people in the United States. Out of all those people
about 4/10 of them have personally experienced or know someone who has experienced an
eating disorder. These disorders have become worse and worse because the social normality of
the perfect body. Eating disorders can best be explained through what they really are, and three
biggest types of eating disorders, Anorexia, Binge-eating, and Bulimia. Explaining what these
disorders really are can educate others. Showing what really happens with the three main
disorders can give an insight to others about what happens. Eating disorders are a mental health
issue that affects millions each year, they are meant to be taken seriously and require serious
medical attention.
Eating disorders are psychological illnesses that cause people to eat and think about food
in abnormal ways that impair their health and everyday functioning. (Garbus 5). Eating
disorders are about more than just food. People affected by these diseases are not just looking to
lose weight, they are obsessed with body image and changing the way they look. Eating
disorders represent extremes in eating behavior and ways of thinking about eating (Eating
Disorders). Doctors by the names of Swanson, Crow, LeGrange, and Menkangas conducted a
survey of 10,123 teens ranging from ages 13 to 18. During this study they discovered 5 eating
disorders, and much to their surprise, they did not find a female preponderance of Anorexia and

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Bulimia (Prevalence and Correlates of Eating Disorders in Adolescents). The three out of the
five eating disorders being focused on are Binge-Eating, Bulimia, and Anorexia.
While mostly teens are affected by these disorders, people of all ages have been
diagnosed. As many as 25 to 30 million Americans have eating disorders, and out of these people
around 95% are young adults. (Garbus 5). A lot of the times, an eating disorder is not the only
problem, they can co-occur with depression, substance abuse, and anxiety disorders. Eating
disorders can become so severe that they can lead to serious heart conditions and kidney failure,
which leads to death (Savage 15). There are many different courses of treatment for these
disorders. This wide range of treatment options are the following; individual, group, or family
psychotherapy, medical care and monitoring, nutritional counselling, and mediations such as
antidepressants. The goals of these treatments is to restore adequate nutrition, bring weight back
to a healthy level, reduce excessive exercising, and stop binging and purging behaviors (Eating
Disorders: About More Than Food). Though these treatments are very effective, preventing
these eating disorders are even better. Even just learning about them can help todays society
become less judgmental and help develop genuine awareness. Other ways to help prevent them
are discouraging the idea of taking insane measures to lose weight, avoiding food categorizing,
taking a stand against body shaming messages, and being a model of healthy self-esteem and
body image (What Can You Do to Help Prevent Eating Disorders?).
Before eating disorders can be prevented, researchers need to better understand them.
These researchers are finding that eating disorders are caused by a complex interaction of
interpersonal, biological, psychological, and social factors. One of the biggest contributors to
eating disorders are social factors. With todays society focused on the perfect body it can lead
to the psychological factor of low self-esteem. Often with low self-esteem comes depression,

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feeling a sense of lack of control in life, stress, anxiety, and depression. The cultural pressures
that glorifies these perfect bodies such as body weight and shapes, gives unrealistic body
images. Along with these narrow definitions of beauty is the interpersonal factors. These factors
are based on a more personal level, such as troubled relationships, history of being ridiculed on
body weight and size, and histories of physical and sexual abuse. On the more scientific side are
the biological factors. Scientists have traced these disorders back to chemicals in the brain that
cause appetite, hunger, and digestion to be unbalanced. The exact meanings of this unbalance is
still unknown. Some of these disorders can often run in families. Current research suggests that
there are significant genetic contributions to eating disorders (Factors That May Contribute to
Eating Disorders.)
Anorexia Nervosa is a serious and potentially life-threatening disease defined by selfstarvation and excessive weight loss. Anorexia is characterized by abnormally low body weight,
intense fear of gaining weight, and a distorted perception of body weight. People with this
disease will have a high value of controlling their weight in shape. They put extreme effort that
tend to significantly interfere with activities and themselves. Loosing or maintaining a certain
weight is so important that they will do anything to obtain that goal. To reach these unrealistic
goals they will use severe restrictions on the amount of food they eat. These restrictions can
range from not eating at all to eating the smallest amounts possible. Along with the amount of
calories they intake, excessive exercising is also a common factor in Anorexia Nervosa. In a
healthy state of mind one may workout for an hour or run three miles, but in this state of mind
one may exercise for three hours or run 8 miles (Anorexia Nervosa).
Meanwhile there are a lot of risk factors involved with Anorexia. One of the biggest of
course is being female. Not just Anorexia, but all eating disorders are more common in females,

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but recently there has been an increase of eating disorders among males from the social
normality. Another risk factor is young age. When one is younger they are more impressionable,
this is why these disorders are more common among teens. Genetics can also be a factor, a
change in certain genes can make one more prone to Anorexia and other eating disorders. A
family history of eating disorders, mostly among first degree relatives can cause others to
develop eating disorders. Transitions such as a new school, job or home, relationships breaking
up, and the death or illness of a loved one can trigger these diseases. The pressure coaches and
parents put on athletes, actors, dancers, and models can leave the impression that they need to
lose weight to be better at what they do. Media and society is can be argued as the biggest
contender in causing eating disorders in this generation. Media frequently flaunts the features
and thinness of models and actors, shaming the ones that are not as thin (Anorexia Nervosa).
However, along with these risk factors there are a lot of symptoms and health risks that
come with being Anorexic. The list of symptoms from Anorexia is extensive. Three of the
biggest symptoms are resisting to maintain body weight at or above a minimal weight for ones
age ad height, intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, and disturbance in the way in
which ones body weight or shape is experienced. Also, women who have reached puberty will
have an infrequent or absent menstrual period (Savage 17). The medical complications that come
with Anorexia Nervosa are very severe. The less severe ones are thinning of bones, brittle hair
and nails, dry and yellow skin, growth of fine hair all over the body, mild anemia, muscle
wasting, weakness, low blood pressure, slowed breathing and pulse, constant exhaustion. The
more severe ones can be life threatening, they are the following, damage to structure and
function of the heart, brain damage, multi-organ failure, drop in internal temperature, and

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infertility (Eating Disorders: About More Than Food). Anyone who knows someone or who is
Anorexic should seek medical attention immediately.
Binge-eating is the complete opposite of Anorexia. Binge-eating is when one loses
control over their eating. This disease causes one to over eat even when they are not hungry
(Eating Disorders: About More Than Food). On average, Binge-eating occurs twice a week
over a six month period. These episodes of controllable eating are usually discrete. Someone
affected by this will feel ashamed and embarrassed resulting in them doing it in secret. Bingeeating episodes are commonly related to with at least the following: eating until feelings
uncontrollably full, eating at a much faster pace than normal, and eating large amounts of foods
even when not feeling hungry. These result in feeling disgusted with oneself, depression, or guilt
of over-eating (Savage 18-19). Symptoms of Binge-eating are overweight and obesity, higher
risk of developing cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, guilt, shame, and distress. Even
though this disorder is not as severe as Anorexia or Bulimia, it still is not meant to be taken
lightly.
Similarly to Binge-eating, Bulimia consists of over-eating, but results in a purging such
as vomiting the over-eaten food. Bulimia is the most common of the eating disorders (Cotter 18).
Along with self-induced vomiting, many will use laxatives to rid themselves of the food they
consumed. Because of purging what they have eaten, people with Bulimia are usually within the
normal weight of their height and age. Nevertheless, like other with Anorexia, one may have the
fear of gaining weight and the desire to lose weight, evidently resulting in dissatisfaction with
their body. Bulimic behaviors are usually performed privately because of the shame and guilt and
can bring. People with these disorders will go through great lengths to have them remain a secret
(Savage 19-20).

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Furthermore, Bulimia comes with many symptoms. Recurrent episode of binge-eating
following inappropriate compensatory behavior in order to prevent weight gain, such as, selfinduced vomiting and misuse of laxatives is the most common (Savage 19). Others are inflamed
and sore throat, swollen salivary glands in the neck and jaw, worn tooth enamel, acid reflux
disorder, intestinal distress, and severe dehydration (Eating Disorders: About More Than
Food). To treat Bulimia, the person affected must undergo nutritional counseling and cognitive
behavioral therapy, CBT. This type of treatment helps a person focus on their problems and learn
how to solve them. They learn to identify distorted or unhelpful thinking patterns. CBT that is
altered to treat Bulimia is effective in changing binge-eating, purging behaviors, and eating
attitudes. This therapy has been proven very effective in both individual and group-based therapy
(Garbus 15).
In conclusion, eating disorders should never be taken lightly, these disorders are mental
illnesses that require the upmost treatment and care. People should be aware of the affects these
diseases have on others. Anorexia, Binge-eating, and Bulimia can be life threatening if not
treated. Todays social standards have become unrealistic and discouraging to not only teenagers,
but to men and women of all ages. Being ridiculed for not having the perfect body is affecting
others in harmful ways and needs to be stopped. If the right courses of action can be taken, eating
disorders can be minimized from what they are today.

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Works Cited
"Anorexia Nervosa." Overview. N.p., 28 Jan. 2016. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.
<http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anorexia/home/ovc-20179508>.
Cotter, Alison. Anorexia and Bulimia. San Diego, CA: Lucent, 2002. Print.
Deans, Emily. "A History of Eating Disorders." Psychology Today. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb.
2016
<https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201112/history-eatingdisorders>.
"Eating Disorders: About More than Food." NIMH RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.
<http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/eating-disorders-newtrifold/index.shtml.>.
"Factors That May Contribute to Eating Disorders National Eating Disorders Association.
NEDA Feeding Hope, n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.
<https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/factors-may-contribute-eating-disorders>.
Garbus, Julia. Eating Disorders. Farmington Hills: Greenhaven, 2015. Print.
Savage, Lorraine. Perspectives on Diseases and Disorders. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2008. Print.
"What Can You Do to Help Prevent Eating Disorders? National Eating Disorders Association.
NEDA Feeding Hope, n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.
<https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/what-can-you-do-help-prevent-eatingdisorders>.