What is an eating disorder?

Eating disorders are serious but treatable mental and physical illnesses that can affect people of all genders, ages, races, religions, ethnicities, sexual orientations, body shapes, and weights. In the United States, 28.8 million Americans will suffer from an eating disorder at some point in their lives.

While no one knows for sure what causes eating disorders, a growing consensus suggests that it is a range of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors.

HEALTH CONSEQUENCES:

Eating disorders are serious, potentially life-threatening conditions that can affect every organ system in the body. They are not fads or phases and can have serious consequences for health, productivity, and relationships.

For more research and information for the whole family and loved ones suffering from an eating disorder please go to:

NEDA National Eating Disorders Association

Fat-shaming by doctors, family, and classmates is a global health problem.

-CNN, June 1, 2021

Joint international consensus statement for ending stigma of obesity

Boys and Body Image

“They want to modify their bodies, they have discomfort about weight and shape and body image, the same as girls,” says Lauren Smolar, vice president at the National Eating Disorders Association. “But they display a little differently.”

Amy Joyce Washington Post

Young people between the ages of 15 and 24 with anorexia have 10 times the risk of dying compared to their same-aged peers.

Smink, F. E., van Hoeken, D., & Hoek, H. W. (2012). Epidemiology of eating disorders: Incidence, prevalence and mortality rates. Current Psychiatry Reports, 14(4), 406-414.

Fichter, M. M., & Quadflieg, N. (2016). Mortality in eating disorders – Results of a large prospective clinical longitudinal study. International Journal of Eating Disorders, Epub ahead of print.

53%

of 13-year-old American girls reported being “unhappy with their bodies.”

Wiley Handbook of Eating Disorders

This goes up to

80%

for 17-year-old girls.

Wiley Handbook of Eating Disorders

These children grow up, have families, and pass on their body dissatisfaction to their children for generations to come.

Only 5%

of women naturally possess the body type often portrayed by Americans in the media.

DoSomething.org

“The earlier you start with addressing things, the better,” says Joel Jahraus, chief medical officer at Monte Nido & Affiliates, an eating disorder treatment platform. “I’ve been in eating disorder work for 35 years. It’s remarkable the number of boys and men coming to treatment at this time, and the age is dropping lower all the time.”

— By Amy Joyce Washington Post