Two newly classified eating disorders I think you should know about

From this article on Yahoo today: http://health.yahoo.net/experts/dayinhealth/new-eating-disor ders-are-they-real

New Eating Disorders: Are they for real?

I have a friend who will only eat short pasta, like penne. Another friend sticks to long pasta - linguini, spaghetti. I thought that was a bit bizarre until I read about Heather Hill, 39, whose diet consists entirely of French fries, pasta with butter or marinara sauce, vegetarian pizza, cooked broccoli, corn on the cob, and cakes and cookies without nuts.

Ms. Hill isn’t alone. New findings indicate that there may be hundreds, if not thousands, of adult picky eaters. To get a handle on the numbers, Duke University and the University of Pittsburgh have launched a national public registry of adult picky eaters. Respected publications like JAMA and Psychology Today are recognizing another new eating disorder, orthorexia, an obsession with healthy eating. That may not sound bad, as obsessions go, but those who carry good intentions too far can face serious risks. 

Eat the right foods to keep your bones strong.

Kristie Rutzel, 27, dropped to 68 pounds when she was in the grip of her fixation on healthy eating - at one point she ate little more than raw broccoli and cauliflower. Neither adult picky eating disorder nor orthorexia is included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), the American Psychiatric Association’s “bible" of mental disorders. Once a disorder is listed, treatment is often covered by insurance and it’s easier for researchers to get grants to study it. Here’s what we know so far:

• What is Adult Selective Eating? Like kids, adult picky eaters limit themselves to an extremely narrow range of foods. Unlike those who suffer from anorexia nervosa or bulimia, adult picky eaters are seemingly not worried about calorie counts or body image. But so far, researchers don’t know if adult picky eaters just haven’t outgrown childhood patterns or if their eating habits are a new twist on obsessive compulsive disorder. Some may be “supertasters," with an abnormally acute sense of taste that turns them off certain foods. Many appear to have had unpleasant childhood associations with food.

• What is orthorexia? Identified in 1997 by Colorado physician Steven Bratman, MD, orthorexia is Latin for “correct eating." Here, too, the focus isn’t on losing weight. Instead, sufferers increasingly restrict their diets to foods they consider pure, natural and healthful. Some researchers say that orthorexia may combine a touch of obsessive compulsive disorder with anxiety and warn that severely limited “healthy" diets may be a stepping stone to anorexia nervosa, the most severe - and potentially life-threatening - eating disorder.

What do they eat?

• Adult picky eaters: Food preferences tend to be bland, white or pale colored - plain pasta or cheese pizza are said to be common foods along with French fries and chicken fingers. Some picky eaters stick to foods with a common texture or taste.

• Orthorexics: Those affected may start by eliminating processed foods, anything with artificial colorings or flavorings as well as foods that have come into contact with pesticides. Beyond that, orthorexics may also shun caffeine, alcohol, sugar, salt, wheat and dairy foods. Some limit themselves to raw foods.

Check out this mobile phone app that guides healthy food choices.

What are the risks?

• Health consequences: Limiting your diet to only a few foods - because you’re a picky eater or have a long list of foods you deem unhealthy - can lead to potentially dangerous nutritional deficiencies. At its most extreme, a diet limited to only a few foods perceived to be healthy is described as orthorexia nervosa and can lead to the same emaciation and health risks seen with anorexia nervosa.

• Social Isolation: Being an adult picky eater can take an enormous social toll. Out of embarrassment, these folks avoid dining with friends or co-workers. Heather Hill tries to hide her eating habits from her children for fear that they will pick them up. Going to extremes in an effort to eat only healthy foods can also be socially isolating and can undermine personal relationships.

How are these disorders treated?

• Adult Selective Eating: Techniques that have proven successful in treating kids who are picky eaters - learning assertiveness skills and systematically trying new foods - are being used on adults, but it’s still too soon to know whether they work.

• Orthorexia: Cognitive behavior therapy designed to change obsessive thought patterns regarding food is usually recommended. 

I point these out because I've seen people here who exhibit these behaviors. I have a hard time classifying picky eating with an eating disorder though. I think it's because the term eating disorder implies a sickness and some folks I know who are picky eaters don't seem otherwise unhealthy.

Like a lady at my work for instance. Thin, healthy, great skin, hair, etc. All she eats are Famous Amos cookies, chips and drinks Diet Coke.

And one might say "it'll catch up with her" but consider my great uncle who was the same way and lived to damn near 100 with NO health problems. He just died of old age. Rare these days, but true.

The second, Orthorexia, I see that a LOT in the WLS community. I've even dabbled in it. I used to have this obsession with getting the most food out of the least amount of calories with the most amount of protein possible. At my high point I could get 170+ grams of protein out of less than 1,000 calories.

That, of course, made me stall which made me start eating more. Ba-dum-bump.

Anyway, have at it.

I believe this because my husband is the worst of the picky eaters !!! then, to top it off, what little stuff he will eat, he covers in Ketchup !!! UGH !!!

 I realize this is a really old post.  But as I have Selective Eating Disorder and recently had gastric bypass I was looking for any information that included both.  I stumbled on this through a google search.

Do you not think it is a mental illness to look at what society considers food and for the SED person to see what equivilates to feces?  When we see what y'all consider food, it is NOT registering as food to us.  Could you put feces in your mouth voluntarily?  Well thats what telling us to eat normally feels like.

Smells, textures and even visual issues are to blame.  We're well aware of that.  We don't go to social gatherings where food will be an issue because A) There is rarely anything offered we consider food and B) We're embarrassed by our limited diets.  And it's people like you, who say it's a choice and not a mental illness that makes it even worse!  I was over on your blog and was quite enjoying you until I stumbled upon this post.

There are THOUSANDS of people with this eating disorder, all over the world, not just in America!  One of the reasons I believe it wasn't brought to society's attention before is the level of secrecy we who have SED eat in.  People ridicule us for our limited diet without having any background information.  Perhaps you would do with researching SED and Adult Picky Eating before you make comments about people who have SED and it not being a "real" eating disorder.  I'm one of the LEAST picky in my online support group of over 300 people eating approximately 50-60 food items.  And I get so exhausted of eating the same things over and over.  And yet when I try to add new foods to my diet I get sick, normally right there.  I've added some items to my diet over the years after much struggle.  But it's a constant battle.

SED/Adult Picky Eating is coming out of the closet finally and major universities are doing great research.  It's linked to OCD and Sensory Integration Disorder.  I wish people would stop judging someone else's mental disorder just because they don't understand it.  We need people who are adept at cooking to help us find healthier options to the food we CAN eat.

 Hi Summer,

I thank you for educating me more on SED and the effects it has on people's lives.

However.

I woudl be remiss not to point out that NOWHERE IN MY POST (since we are so fond of using all caps for emphasis) did I say it wasn't a real eating disorder, just that I personally had a hard time understanding it.

Perhaps I could learn more about SED. Or perhaps I could just commit to believing you when you say it is a disorder that has affected you and many others, which is the more realistic choice because...well, quite frankly...I don't have a big catalyst to research something that doesn't affect me. I also have no catalyst to disbelieve anything you say. 

So we'll leave it at that, yes?

Have a nice day :)

Pam actually posted this earlier... 

Lora

Bless her. She did it because I asked (read: kinda bullied) her to. I wasn't sure if she did or didn't as I was busy whining to her on IM all day.

Somehow IM doesn't offend the internet po-po at my job. OH'ing has gotten me flagged several times.

:) Thanks Lora.

 Often we can lump any major disordered eating into a category "Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified", when the behaviors don't quite meet any of the current diagnoses or fall under situations like in the article. But, to answer your question, it's disordered eating when it affects a person's social, academi****upational, relational, or physical functioning. Like as in an anorexic physically deteriorates and avoids social situations and can't go to work b/c he/she is so weak.... those would be major impediments in their functioning. But like all disorders, it's a continuum so lots of people have tiny bits of slightly disordered eating but often doesn't go to the extreme of being diagnosable.

That actually makes a lot of sense. Thank you!

I guess people who are picky eaters to the point of not being healthy, yes, that's a problem.

If I were to classify MY eating disorder, I'd say it is the food version of body dysmorphic disorder. I always think I am eating more than I actually am. This is why I continue to journal. I'll think I've eaten like a pig and will pull back and then journal my food and find myself a good 5-600 calories short of my goal. But in my HEAD I overate!

I was reading the one for Orthorexia and thought, "What's wrong with that? Isn't it what we're supposed to try to be doing anyway?"  

"Orthorexics: Those affected may start by eliminating processed foods, anything with artificial colorings or flavorings as well as foods that have come into contact with pesticides. Beyond that, orthorexics may also shun caffeine, alcohol, sugar, salt, wheat and dairy foods. Some limit themselves to raw foods."

Then I started thinking how easy it would be, especially for those of us who already obsess over food, to morph our addiction to another unhealthy extreme on the opposite side of the spectrum.

I guess that knowing dangers can come from trying to be healthy for the first time in our lives will help to stop us form letting it turn into another unhealthy behavior.

Thanks for the post!