Eating Disorder or Dis - Ordered Eating

By Cari Junge

To stick to our theme from last week’s Health Spot of analyzing the macro and micro meanings of terms that can make up a diagnosis, I am beginning our monthly Nutrition Spot with one of my favorites. I first heard reference of a re-engineered approach to working with ‘dis-ordered eating patterns’, as opposed to the term ‘eating disorders’ from a masterful Sports Dietitian about 10 years ago. She bluntly shared the stat that nearly 85% of her career-long client base has had a ‘dis-ordered eating’ pattern noticeably harmful to lifestyle and/or sports performance. No kidding?! That’s high, I remember thinking, though today I’d likely see that as a low percentage.

The National Eating Disorders Association (1) provides the following definition:

“Eating disorders -- such as anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating – include extreme emotions, attitudes, and behaviors surrounding weight and food issues. Eating disorders are serious emotional and physical problems that can have life-threatening consequences for females and males.”

I am not a credentialed expert in this area though have experienced close association across my personal and professional career. I have explored what tends to come first when studying the onset of eating disorders, the emotional or the physical problem. If we get down to brain chemistry driving physical response, there’s rationale for the psycho- to physio- process dictating emotion as the catalyst.  If a physical condition is diagnosed at birth or early onset that limits the body’s ability to perform a healthy nutrition pattern like absorbing a specific mineral which may eliminate a food group from diet, there’s reason to believe that physiology drives.  While some behaviors (that show harmful patterns of managing caloric intake and output) may not be clinically considered a ‘full syndrome eating disorder’ (as the NEDA categorizes), they can still be physically dangerous and emotionally draining. Today, however, it’s important to recognize that irregular patterns appearing dis-ordered are actually healthier for us given the scope of change we experience across a 12-month cycle.

The play on words between ‘Eating Disorder’ and ‘Dis-Ordered Eating’ resonated with me instantly as an athlete and coach back then, just as the relationship between ‘Disease’ and ‘Dis-Ease’ hit home when I first heard the term.(2)

“Disordered eating” has become a prevalent term in Lifestyle and Sports Nutrition today. It’s used to describe eating habits or patterns that are irregular. Many different types of disordered eating habits exist, but for the most part these habits or diets do not add up to a diagnosis of a full syndrome eating disorder. Some examples include: excluding whole food groups (for example, all fats or all carbohydrates), eating only at particular times of the day, eating only specific foods, colors or textures, not eating certain foods together in a sitting, building our life (and workouts) around our meals, etc…  

Sometimes these patterns have formed in childhood, say from being labeled a picky eater or fighting siblings for your ration at the dinner table. These boundaries or restrictions, a.k.a. relationships, can also develop as a means for losing weight, filling a hole (and not meaning a doughnut), managing performance, or as a coping mechanism against emotional stress. The implication is that they are un-healthy, which I have learned to leave room for assessing otherwise. And it’s an assessment that’s important to differentiate the constructive vs. destructive nature.

Let’s reference the phrase ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’. This habit-forming protocol can drive some minds to nearly will upon themselves symptoms of illness on a day they don’t get to eat one. I remember when I’d purposely force an apple down because of that mantra, even if it wasn’t in-season. Now well-educated on the ‘why’, I prioritize the pattern when I know my body needs it to maintain or gain homeostasis, and it actually tastes better in that case. We can buy yummy tasting apples year-round here in the States, but it’s most important to eat them when they are in-season (be sure to read reference #3). Apples can cause some distress in the gut, which they do for me outside of their harvest-period, because they’re actually not good for my body then. I can right now hear my mom saying ‘Why, not?! It’s so good for you’ when I say ‘no thanks’ during the chill of winter.

With every new diet that hits the tabloids, reference to the primitive hunting and gathering days, and continuous re-evaluation of potential toxicity or carcinogen levels in nearly everything we touch that’s influenced by man, chances are we all move through life with dis-ordered eating patterns.

To those living with a clinically diagnosed (or not yet) full-syndrome eating disorder, please utilize the amazing support systems readily available today that work. Life is and you are worth it.

And those who battle disordered eating patterns that clearly leave harmful residue, you too have incredible resources available to you. Research shows that by seeking out professional guidance, you will be successful resolving healthy eating habits.

Finally, those with irregular intake patterns conscientiously implemented for optimal lifestyle and health management, I commend you. I’ll refer to you all as our ‘C-Cubed Control Group’. (4) It’s far from easy to make this process work, and there’s not a plethora of support out here for you- which is one goal of ours in creating The Utah SWEAT Spot. So, if this classification resonates with your lifestyle, share a tip that works for you and/or ask a question for us to support.

I hope you enjoyed a good SWEAT Session today- next week in the ‘Sport Spot’, we will focus further into the concept of controlled chaos as it relates to fitting sport into life, and vice versa. Until then, I wish you well~

Cari Junge

Nutrition & Therapy Director

www.utahsportsandwellness.com

SIDEBAR:

(1)   (www.NationalEatingDisorders.org)

(2)   ** Check out my September Health Spot post on this topic as well as read my initial exposure to this concept I didn’t share in that blog as follows:

I attended a weekend retreat in the late ‘90s called ‘Natural Chi Movement’ which focused on meditative techniques. The agenda included the option to observe a natural healer perform a Pranic Healing technique to energetically move phlegm up and out of a young boy’s lungs who battled Leukemia. There was no touch whatsoever from the point of introduction, through a process to instill a sense of ‘Ease’ in the patient mentally and physically, and then to guide the waste-removal of disease from his body into a bowl. WOW

(3)  Apples are harvested in abundance at the end of the summer, as if nature is sending a message to eat a lot of them during that time. And this is how smart nature is that many don’t realize. Our bodies don’t manage the heat of summer that well for that long without building toxic residue, inflammation and dis-ease. In peak harvest, an apple a day will help eliminate waste as a purgative or natural heat-removing agent. You’ll know it’s needed and working if your following it up with ‘#2’ in the bathroom.

(4)  ‘C-Cubed’ which may be written as 3 x (three times) ‘C’ stands for ‘Comfortably Controlled Chaos’ . Controlled chaos to me is reality, it’s the way today and the more we go with the triple decker sandwich, the less we feel the impact of the meat inside.

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