A comprehensive presentation on Eating Disorder for Dietetics and medical undergraduate/graduate students. Complete description about types, symptoms, and causes

1. Eating Disorders

2. What are eating disorders:
An eating disorder is marked by extremes. It is present
when a person experiences severe disturbances in eating
behavior such as:
 Extreme overeating,
 Feelings of extreme distress
 Constant concern about body weight or shape
 Extreme reduction of food intake
Introduction

3. Examples of eating disordersthat
might result in underweight:
• Anorexia nervosa
• Bulimia nervosa
• Binge eating disorder
• Pica
Affects mainly youngwomen
especially and dieters:
o Research shows: More than 90
percent of those who have eating
disorders are women between
the ages of 12 and 25 years
o Many men are also affected
Introduction

4. Causes:
• It often starts with mild obesity; dieting leads to
intentional weight loss
• The person continues to diet and body imagebecomes
distorted
• Many causes to eating disorder are related tothe
pressure of society for thinness
Treatment:
• Psychotherapy (psychological counseling)
• Medication
• Nutritional support forachieving & maintaining desirable body
weight

5. What isAnorexia?
• Called self starvation; It is a disorder with eating
and causes individuals to become obsessed
about the food they eat as well as about their
weight
•Anorexia nervosa develops mainly during
adolescence or early adulthood
•Anorexia is an attempt to use food to deal with
emotional problems
•Due to the fear of gaining weight, people restrict
the amount of food they consume
•Lower food intake causes metabolicand
hormonal disorders
It is characterized by:
•Excessive and irrational food restriction
•Fear of becoming obese with a distorted body-
image and a distorted body self-perception
•Anorexic Starve themselves and avoid food
•Have a BMI of 17.5 orless
1- Anorexia Nervosa

6. Symptoms
• Patients are TERRIFIED of being overweight, even
when they are severely malnourished and
underweight
• Patients will eat less and less
• Refusal to maintain a normal BMI for their age
• Obsession with calories and fat content of food
• Purging: Run to the bathroom after
eating in order to vomit and quickly get rid of the
food
• Intolerance to cold
• Hair loss or thinning
• Fatigue

7. Characterized by episodes ofbinge
eating and purging (vomiting,laxatives,
fasting, medications anddiuretics)
Binge eating
•Eating huge quantities of food ina
short time
•Feeling of loss of control overeating
Purging
•Compensation mechanism
•Repeatedly compensates for binging by
purging (vomiting), taking laxatives,
enemas, dieting and/or
•Extreme exercise to stay thin
2- Bulimia Nervosa

8. Complications of Anorexia and Bulimia
• Osteoporosis
• Anemia
• Menstrual irregularities
• Erosion of digestive tract & teeth andsore throat (due to
forced vomiting)
• Electrolyte imbalance
• Gastro-intestinal problems
• Dry skin/hair
• Anxiety /Depression
• Slow heart rate / Low bloodpressure
• Death
Complications

9. • Binge eating begins during or after strict dieting
• A person eats a large amount of food in a shorter period of
time than normal people
• The person also feels a sense of loss ofcontrol
• It may be caused by the stress of not eating enough food
3-Binge Eating

10. Binge eating Is characterized by
recurrent eating without purging:
• Eat rapidly
• Uncomfortably full
• Eating when nothungry
• Eating alone
• Feeling disgusted or guilty after
binging
• Feelings of shame relatedto food or
weight
Binge Eating

11. • It is a pattern of eating non-food materials (such as dirt or
paper) or craving fornon-food items
• This pattern of eating should last at least 1 month to fit the
diagnosis of pica
People with pica may eat:
• Dirt, Paint, Clay, Chalk, Rocks, Cigarettes,Ashes, Sand,
Starch, Rust, Hair, baking soda, Glue, Ice
4- pica

12. Causes
• It is observed more in young children than adults
• It can occurs during pregnancy due to lack of certain
nutrients
• Pica may also occur in adults who crave a certain texturein
their mouth
Complications:
• Malnutrition
• Intestinal obstruction and infection
• Anemia
• Mercury/lead poisoning
• Liver and Kidney damage
• Constipation and abdominal problems