Eating Disorders Blog

A new television show called "Freaky Eaters" features those with bizarre food preferences and the professionals who are trying to help him.

• One episode is about a poet who eats only raw meat in order to prove himself manly to his father, grandfather, and brother, all of whom have military backgrounds.
• Another features "French fry girl," a freaky eater who eats only French fries and nothing else. Her therapist dyes her potatoes different colors in order to make them repulsive to her, and then forces her to eat them.

Dr. Mike Dow, a therapist who hosts the show, says that "freaky eating" could be classified as a non-specified eating disorder (a category also commonly known as EDNOS) . Sufferers often eat just one or two foods, and thereby receive inadequate nutrition. Most of them are overweight. People with the disorder usually have an "emotional addictive component" within their strange eating habits, Dr. Dow said.

"Usually there is something that they are medicating," he said. "There was a study that says it takes more and more of the same amount of fat to cause the same response in the brain. We build tolerance to food in the same way people build tolerance to cocaine or alcohol. There is a biological addictive response that is being built. I don't think a lot of people think of food as an addictive substance, but it absolutely is."
 

Labels: awareness, media, ednos, picky eaters

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 0 Comments

When people hear the phrase “eating disorder,” they typically think of anorexia or bulimia. But one that’s not-often talked about is Selective Eating Disorder, which causes the sufferer to severely restrict the types of food she’ll eat.

“According to the University College at London’s Institute of Child Health up to 20 percent of children below the age of five years are picky eaters and some of them grow up to be SED adults – restricting, avoiding, even fearing certain foods. Some psychologists say that SED is a combination eating disorder, phobia and addiction problem – but not a lot is known about it.” [Source: C Healthy (Canada)]

Duke University recently launched the first-ever public registry of picky eating, aimed at recording the habits of picky eaters for the sake of more extensive research. Julie Notto, program director for a Toronto eating disorder center – says picky eating and SED are unhealthy coping mechanisms that require treatment.

Labels: picky eaters, selective eating disorder

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 0 Comments