Food, Bulimia, Anorexia and Obesity
We all have different eating habits. There are a lot of ‘food styles’ that can allow us to stay healthy. However, there are some that are driven by an intense fear of fattening and that actually damage our health. These are called ‘eating disorders’ and involve:
– Eat a lot.
– Eat very little.
– Use harmful ways to get rid of calories.
In fact, ‘eating disorders’ generally imply much more than eating behavior, so people affected by them constantly care about how to avoid ingesting calories or how to ‘burn’ or how to get rid of them. They are also checking their weight and appearance all the time, avoid being in mirrors or photographs to ensure that their weight has not increased.
Next, we are going to talk about the two pillars in better known food disorders: anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. However, describe the two separate disorders. First, anorexia and bulimia can occur indistinctly among them, often emerging the two diseases in the same person:
- The symptoms of anorexia and bulimia are often mixed
- People can also pass from bulimia to anorexic, or they can begin with anorexic symptoms, but then develop the symptoms of bulimia.
Anorexia nervosa
In the case of anorexia nervosa, the most latent signs are the following:
- Worry more and more about your weight.
- Eat less and less, telling the calories ingested.
- Do more and more exercise to burn calories.
- Not being able to avoid losing weight, even when it is well below a safe weight for age and height.
- Smoking more or chewing gum to keep the weight low.
- Obsessively verify the weight, shape or reflection in the mirrors.
- Withdraw from social situations that can involve eating.
- Wear baggy clothes to hide the body.
- Load the body with water before weighing by obligation.
- Exclude certain food groups and making food ‘good’ and ‘bad’.
- Avoid meals, especially at school.
- Lose interest.
In girls or women, monthly menstrual periods become irregular or stop. In men or children, erections and wet dreams stop, the testicles shrink.
Some people notice that they have developed other obsessive difficulties, such as having to stick to routines and rigid times, or perhaps fear "pollution", the need to study or work all the time, or the difficulty of spending money properly. Commonly anorexia affects all ages and sex, but especially in adolescents, of which one in 150 girls suffer from anorexia and one in every 1000 boys suffer from this disease.
The main characteristic in this disease is to take very few calories every day. You eat ‘healthy’, fruits, vegetables and salads, but they don’t give enough energy to the body. It is also exercised, using slimming or smoking pills to keep your weight low. You don’t want to afford, but buy food and cooking for other people.
It is discovered that one or one cannot stop thinking about eating. You are increasingly afraid of weight and is more determined to keep the weight well below normal. The family is usually the first to notice low weight. You may not be able to tell other people the real amount you are eating and how much weight you are losing.
You can also get sick if you eat something that did not plan to afford, especially if you lose control of your diet and binge. However, this is known as ‘anorexia, a compulsive purge subtype’ instead of bulimia nervosa. Bulimia nervosa patients are, by definition, in the normal weight range.
Bulimia
The most common signs in bulimia nervosa are:
- Worry more and more about weight.
- Binge (see below).
- Vomit and / or use laxatives or other ways to get rid of calories.
- Have irregular menstrual periods.
- Feeling tired.
- Feel guilty.
- Maintain a normal weight, despite your efforts to diet.
Bulimia nervosa often begins in the middle of adolescence. However, people can be sick for several years before they can ask for help. Most people seek help when their life changes: the beginning of a new relationship or having to live with other people for the first time. Approximately 4 out of 100 women suffer from bulimia at some point in their lives, that is, less men.
It is characterized by eating more than due and buying many bad foods that you would normally avoid- later everything is eaten to, at the end, vomit or expel it through laxatives. The bingers can start as a planned meal, but because it has been restricting what is eaten, it is discovered that a normal meal does not satisfy it, so it cannot stop eating. Then you feel full and swollen, and probably guilty and depressed. Try to get rid of the food you have eaten sick or purge with laxatives. It is very uncomfortable and exhausting, but you are caught in a routine of binge, vomiting and / or purges.
Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition that occurs when a person has excess weight or body fat that could affect their health. A doctor will generally suggest that a person has obesity if he has a high body mass index.
The body mass index (BMI) is a tool that doctors use to assess whether a person has an adequate weight for their age, sex and height. The measure combines height and weight. An BMI between 25 and 29.9 Indicates that a person is excess weight. A BMI of 30 or more suggests that a person can have obesity.
If a person has obesity and excess weight, this can increase their risk of developing a series of health conditions, including metabolic syndrome, arthritis and some types of cancer. Metabolic syndrome implies a series of problems, such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
Maintain healthy weight or lose with diet and exercise is a way of preventing or reducing obesity. In some cases, a person may need surgery.
Among the main characteristics of obesity, we have:
1) Consume too many calories
A person has a lower risk of obesity if their diet consists mainly of fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
When a person consumes more calories than he uses as energy, his body will store additional calories in the form of fat. This can lead to excess weight and obesity.
Foods that tend to increase weight gain including:
- Fast foods.
- Fried foods.
- Fat and processed meats.
- Many dairy products.
- Foods with added sugar, such as baked products, breakfast cereals prepared and cookies.
- Foods containing hidden sugars.
- Sweetened, soda and alcoholic drinks.
- Processed foods with high carbohydrate content.
Eating too much of these foods and doing very little exercise can cause weight gain and obesity. A person who consumes a diet that consists mainly of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and water is still at risk of gaining weight if they eat excessively, or if genetic factors, for example, increase their risk.
2) Take a sedentary lifestyle
Regular physical activity can help prevent obesity. Many people lead a much more sedentary lifestyle than their parents and grandparents.
Examples of sedentary habits include:
- Work in an office instead of doing manual work.
- Play games on a computer instead of doing physical activities outside.
- Go to places by car instead of walking or riding a bicycle.
The less a person moves, the less calories burning. In addition, physical activity affects the functioning of a person’s hormones and hormones have an impact on the way the body processes food.
3) Do not sleep enough
Lack of sleep increases the risk of giving weight and developing obesity.
When a person does not sleep enough, his body produces Grelina, a hormone that stimulates appetite. At the same time, lack of sleep also results in a lower leptin production, a hormone that suppresses appetite.
4) Endocrine disruptors
The characteristics of metabolic syndrome include diabetes, cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure. People with obesity are more likely to have metabolic syndrome.
Scientists believe that there is a link between high fructose consumption and obesity and metabolic syndrome. The authorities have expressed concern about the use of corn syrup with high fructose content to sweeten drinks and other food products.
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