Archive for the 'Nutrition' Category

Parties and Presents and Resolutions, Oh My!

The end of a calendar year brings with it endless conversations of new year’s resolutions.  Setting these notoriously lofty goals is often an attempt to pull oneself out of the seasonal funk that can settle in with shorter days, colder weather and a barrage of holiday stressors.  When people make resolutions, it is often with the intent to completely overhaul their life.  They look to make a sweeping change that will fix all that is wrong, and get them back on the “right track”.  Unfortunately, this particular type of goal setting usually backfires – as evidenced by the fact that most people end up making the same exact resolutions year after year.  

New year’s resolutions also send a message that today doesn’t count – it gives us permission to stay unhappy or unhealthy ”just a little bit longer” until January 1st rolls around. This could mean different things for different people depending on whether you are working towards recovery from an eating disorder, still struggle with chronic yo-yo dieting or are trying to quit smoking.  So, how do you pull yourself out of the winter blues without jumping on the resolution bandwagon?  Here are a few ideas to get you started…

1.  Don’t wait.  Start making small adjustments today that have nothing to do with food, eating, or your weight. Creating small but positive disruptions in your daily routine can help you stay grounded and may even help to break a cycle of negative thoughts or eating disorder symptoms that are associated with certain places or a time of day.

  • Try taking a different route to work or school.  This small change could open up new possibilities, even if its just observing the new scenery or discovering a park along the way that you never knew existed!  Who knows, you may even find out that your new detour involves less traffic or fewer lights.
  • Do some interior designing.  Consider rearranging some furniture or updating a picture wall inside your house or apartment.  Visible changes such as these can offer a sense of renewal without the obligation or pressure.
  • These are just a few examples…you can come up with your own ideas for “minor adjustments” and share them on our Facebook page.

2. Setting goals is a great thing but not if the goal is unrealistic, unhealthy, too vague, or involves intense pressure to succeed.  All of these charactersistics can make it very difficult to follow through with a resolution.  Instead, focus on taking small, concrete steps forward in the direction of balanced living.    

  • If you tend to make resolutions that are unrealistic and unhealthy…“I have to get myself to the gym.  I’m going to purchase a membership and force myself to go everyday, no matter what.”
    • Try this instead: “I will commit to going to one or two community yoga classes by the end of the month and work on developing a positive and supportive relationship with my body.”
  • If you tend to make resolutions that are vague and counterproductive… “I need to lose weight by the summer so I’m really going to stick to my diet this year!”
    • Try this instead: “I give myself permission to stop dieting and to trust my body. If I need the help of a professional nutritionist to do this, I will seek one out.”
  • If you tend to make resolutions that leave no room for error and put a lot of pressure on you to succeed…“As of January 1st, I am never going to act on my eating disorder symptoms again.”
    • Try this instead: “Before the week is over, I will call and schedule an appointment to begin seeing a therapist.” This is an example of a small but very meaningful task that can result in long-term change.  If you already see a therapist, consider this instead: “In the next week, I will use at least one new support or coping skill that I’ve never tried before.”  Examples include: attending a support group, journaling, or enrolling in art therapy.

3. Now that you’ve resolved NOT to make a resolution, how are you going to cope with everybody else who feels inclined to talk about resolutions, weight loss and diets all of the time? 

  •  Be the bearer of accurate news.  When your friends start discussing the new diet they will begin on January 1st, inform them about why diets don’t work.  If you’re not sure why, stay tuned for our upcoming blog that will convince you once and for all that dieting is NOT the way to go.
  • Try out the “shock and awe” technique. As others start to bemoan their hips and curse their thighs while resolving to change their bodies in the new year, employ the element of surprise – say something  NICE about yourself and your body. Body bashing has become such an accepted form of conversation (especially around the holidays) that when someone (You!) is able to reflect positively on their own body, people are seriously caught off guard and may think twice about their own statements.  Try one of the comments below or come up with a few of your own!
    • “I am so grateful for all of the things my body allows me to accomplish.” 
    • “I’m much more concerned about feeling strong and healthy than I am about fitting into a particular size.”
    • Even if you are not at a point in your life, or in recovery, where you actually believe these statements, say them anyway!  Saying them out loud helps move you in the right direction toward real change.  You will not only have helped yourself, but you will steer the conversation away from a negative place and become a role model for positive body image.  This is particularly important if children and adolescents are within earshot of the conversation.

Here’s to a happy and balanced end of 2009 and continued hopefulness in 2010! 

If you have any questions about eating disorders, please call our admissions coordinators at (410) 938-5252 to speak confidentially about your concerns and treatment options.  Additionally, you can visit our website at  www.eatingdisorder.org for more information, including an interactive on-line quiz that can help determine whether you, or someone you care about, might have an eating disorder that requires professional treatment.   

Photo courtesy of grandhoteloceancity.com

Published by Kate Clemmer
December 22nd, 2009 in Body Image, Celebrity Topical News, Editor's Picks, In the News, Nutrition
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Tips for Overcoming Holiday Stress & Anxiety – Part II: The Stress

Thanksgiving, a holiday of gratitude and hopefulness, can also come with a large dose of frustration, worry and woes.  In an attempt to make this Thanksgiving a positive one, especially for those who are also struggling with an eating disorder, we’ve offered some ideas for overcoming and embracing the holiday season.  Yesterday, we posted Part I: The Food, the first in a holiday blog series that addresses unique challenges associated with eating and socializing during the holidays. Today, Part II in the series offers even more constructive ideas and concrete steps you can take to make your Thanksgiving a success, while still prioritizing your recovery.

Part II: When it comes to the STRESS…

If the place where you are staying is particularly stressful or triggering, carving out time for yourself is a necessity.  Try finding a quiet room to be alone for several minutes in order to clear your head and re-energize yourself for encounters with others around you. Taking five minutes out to breathe and re-center can make a big difference in your ability to maintain your composure and keep you focused on your goals of having a healthy and positive holiday experience.  If you’re worried that you will seem rude if you leave or have a hard time finding the time to be alone, consider offering to pick up or drop off elderly family members who can’t drive themselves.  

  • Depending on your preference, try to let those around you know what is helpful and what isn’t. The holidays are an important time to practice being assertive.
  • Reach out - we all know one or two people who can’t travel to their own family’s Thanksgiving event or just don’t have a place to go for the holiday – invite them along to share in your festivities.  
    • Bonus - An extra support person for you before, during and after the meal!  
  • Focus on the kids!  Get the younger generation involved in your support plan.  Round up the youngest family members for a post-dinner game of  Pictionary or puzzles.  Often, kids can be the most positive and least triggering family members.
  • In the event that someone makes a triggering food/body comment to you, have a plan for ways to quickly shift attention away from you in a positive way…respond strategically to the comment and then ask your cousin how her new job is going, or mention that your parents should tell everyone about their recent vacation.
  • Just because it is a holiday doesn’t mean you have to clear your social calendar – think about making plans with a friend to see a movie right after your holiday gathering so you can have something to look forward to regardless of how well your Thanksgiving meal goes. 
  • The same goes for your pre-meal schedule.  Sitting around, smelling food and just waiting for the meal to be ready can be a very triggering or anxiety-provoking time.  Consider offering to run a last minute errand or employ yourself as the family photographer!  Make it your goal to snap some great pictures of your family members arriving and socializing together. 
    • Bonus – The resulting photos could make great gifts when the next holiday rolls around!

Although the holidays can be difficult, try to place them in perspective and remember that no single day determines your worth, value, or potential as a person.  Regardless of what you hear from others, keep in mind that this is a season of hope and thanks-giving, so try to focus less on the stressors and more on the ability that you have to give thanks and receive joy this holiday season.

Find even more holiday coping skills by reading last year’s blog, Thanksgiving with an Eating Disorder: 10 Tips to Help You Get Through the Holiday.

photo courtesy of bhg.com/holidays

Published by Kate Clemmer
November 24th, 2009 in CED Events, Editor's Picks, In the News, Nutrition
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Don’t Weigh In On This Technology!

On the heels of the Smartphone controversy, another piece of technology is further enabling people to obsess and lament over their weight.  The difference this time is that, instead of a private obsession with the number on the scale, this piece of modern equipment broadcasts a person’s weight for all to see over their twitter page. 

The technology in this case, happens to be a bathroom scale with a wireless connection to the internet.  The company behind this gimmick, contends that by automatically programming your bathroom scale to share results of each weigh-in with your entire social network via a twitter page or website, you will be more motivated to lose weight.  This technology gives unwarranted and unhealthy power to the number on the scale.  Even the LA Times Online article addressing the issue, touches on the questionable utility of this product but goes on to imply that one’s weight, as told by the scale, may be equally, or even more, relevant and revealing than how much debt a person owes or whether one has achieved their life dreams.  We, at The Center for Eating Disorders strongly disagree.  Weight is not a good indicator of health, beauty, or self-worth and should not be a determinant of success in a personal OR public forum. 

The weight-tweeting bathroom scale gets a big thumbs down from us.  Read the article and tell us what you think on our CED facebook page or CED twitter page.  We’d much rather hear from YOU than your bathroom scale! 

photo courtesy of whitezine.com

Published by Kate Clemmer
November 13th, 2009 in Body Image, Editor's Picks, In the News, Nutrition
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Application Awareness

Dr. Harry Brandt, Director at the Center for Eating Disorders, was recently quoted in a blog entry on ChicagoTribune.com.  The article discussed the negative impact that some smart phone applications can have on those individuals who are suffering from or are at-risk for developing an eating disorder. In light of this article, we’re re-posting an earlier entry we wrote on the subject in an attempt to generate awareness about this potentially dangerous trend.

     

They can navigate you safely to your destination, identify a song playing in the background, and keep you busy with endless games while riding the bus to work or school, but some Smart Phone applications are not so helpful and could become harmful to their users.  Eating disorder experts have observed that new handheld applications, designed to aid users in reaching weight loss goals, can easily perpetuate a serious eating disorder (ED) or become the catalyst for the development of an ED in those who are at-risk.  

One of these weight monitoring applications boasts in an advertisement that it is, “a tool for people who are serious about tracking their weight…you can’t control your weight unless you are aware of how it is changing.”  This ability to track minute details of nutritional intake 24 hours a day from the palm of your hand, and the desire to establish, the always elusive, ”control” over one’s eating and weight could be easily abused by anyone with disordered eating patterns.  In fact, many of the application’s features promote or even mimic actual signs and symptoms of a serious ED.  Frequent weighing, micromanaging food intake, and excessive monitoring of calories spent during exercise are all signs that someone may have an ED.  These potentially dangerous actions are encouraged by the applications which assign technical names to the disordered eating patterns such as the setting of a “daily caloric budget” and the use of a “nutritional database”.        

What may be most dangerous about these applications is the illusion they create that this level of excessive monitoring of food, weight, and exercise represents a normal, healthy lifestyle.  At the Center for Eating Disorders, we strive to help people develop healthy relationships with food and an appreciation for their bodies, regardless of weight or size.  Unfortunately, applications such as the ones described above, seem to be doing the exact opposite.

Tools like this may be benign, although time-consuming and unnecessary, in the hands of people who are not vulnerable to EDs.  However, the thoughts and behaviors they encourage could be life threatening to someone with an ED or to someone who is at-risk for developing one.  It is increasingly important that we, as a community and as individuals, are aware of the risks associated with our ever-expanding world of technology and the effects it may be having on the people in our lives. 

If you are concerned about a friend or loved one who is struggling with disordered eating or you would like more information about eating disorders, please call us at (410) 938-5252 and explore our website at www.eatingdisorder.org .

Published by Kate Clemmer
October 26th, 2009 in Celebrity Topical News, Editor's Picks, Glossary Definitions, In the News, Nutrition
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Dieting Pressures Start Early & Last a Lifetime

The Wall Street Journal ran an informative article yesterday by journalist, Jeffrey Zaslow, as a follow-up to a front-page story he did in 1986 on the dieting pressures and body ideals facing 9 year-old elementary school students.   Over twenty years ago,  Zaslow’s questioning found that over half of the girls surveyed reported that they were on a diet and 3/4 of them claimed they were too heavy. Additionally, the fourth-grade boys that were interviewed had negative things to say about the girls in their class who were not thin, which added to the pressures girls felt to lose weight .

Back then, the 1986 article helped to shed light on the problem of America’s obsession with thinness.  Unfortunately, the weight loss pressures have only gotten worse and the rates of eating disorders have risen dramatically since the ’80s.  Zaslow’s follow-up article hoped to answer questions about whether those fourth graders would somehow outgrow the image-focused mentality of their early childhood,  or “would these girls be burdened by the dieting culture as they grew into women?”

In his recent piece, Zaslow writes, “Those girls I interviewed are 32 and 33 years old now, and when I got back in touch with some of them last week, they said that they and their peers have never escaped society’s obsession with body image…some told stories of damaging diets and serious self-esteem issues regarding their weight.”

He also spoke with a researcher about the consequences of disordered eating on children at such a young age and reported that “A preoccupation with body image is now showing up in children as young as five, and it can be exacerbated by our culture’s increased awareness of obesity, which leaves many non-overweight kids stressed about their bodies.  This dieting by children can stunt growth and brain development.”  

As parents of young children it is important to be reminded that the issue of body image and weight is not one of vanity or something to be ignored.  It is serious and has serious consequences. This article shows very clearly that there are long-term effects and ongoing battles with food and weight that can stem from disordered eating and distorted body image in fourth grade and even earlier.       

It’s never too early.  Talk with your daughter.  Talk with your son.  Find out what they think and believe about weight and size and whether they feel pressured (or are putting pressure on others!) to look a certain way or to lose weight.  The conversations you have with them now, could prevent another generation of weight-obsession and rising numbers of eating disorders.

The Center for Eating Disorders’ Outreach Department is available to work with local parenting groups and organizations on how to foster healthy eating and positive body image in your children.  Call (410) 427-3886 for more information.

photo courtesy of newsroom-magazine.com

Published by Kate Clemmer
September 3rd, 2009 in Body Image, Celebrity Topical News, In the News, Nutrition
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Bogus Billboard: A Response to PETA’s Vegetarian Ad Campaign in Jacksonville

 

If we needed another reminder about the epidemic of size prejudice that exists in our society, we have one. A PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) billboard that went up in Jacksonville, Florida took aim at beachgoers’ insecurities about their bodies with a cartoon picture of a larger woman and a tagline that reads “Save the Whales” followed by “Lose the Blubber: Go Vegetarian”.  The billboard has already been called disrespectful, tasteless, mean-spirited, and cruel by Jacksonville residents, bloggers, feminists and others who are speaking out about the ad so we won’t waste time re-stating the obvious.  However, in addition to causing unnecessary humiliation and shame, we are deeply concerned about the billboard’s misguided message about using vegetarianism as a weight-loss method.　　　　

At The Center for Eating Disorders, we were very concerned about the possibility that PETA’s billboard could potentially sway many people, especially adolescents, into unnecessary or unsupervised attempts at becoming vegetarians based on faulty information that it is an effective way to lose weight.  As a result, our team of registered dietitians put together some more factual information about vegetarianism for our readers.　

  •  Adolescents and young adults who are struggling emotionally and have a negative body image may be drawn to vegetarianism as a means to lose weight and “fit in”.
  • The decision to stop eating meat, or any other food group, may be a warning sign of an underlying eating disorder; becoming a vegetarian gives someone a socially acceptable cover-up for restricting food which is a major symptom of anorexia nervosa. 
  • Overly restricted or inappropriately selected vegetarian diets can easily result in significant malnutrition, delayed growth spurt, iron deficiency anemia and Vitamin B12 deficiency which can lead to irreversible damage to the nervous system.  
  • Vitamin and mineral deficiencies due to a poorly maintained vegetarian diet can be particularly detrimental to the growth and development of children and adolescents and breastfed infants of vegetarian mothers.
  • Vegetarianism is NOT a weight loss tool!  Adhering to vegetarianism takes diligence, knowledge, professional nutritional guidance and an increased intake of other foods that contain the vitamins and nutrients your body needs but is not receiving from meat.  In fact, it can take a larger amount of non-meat foods to satisfy the daily nutritional requirements that meat would supply in smaller portions.

A significant association between vegetarianism and eating disorders has been highlighted in several studies:

  • Young vegetarians between the ages of 15 and 23 report more binge eating episodes than non-vegetarians; Binge eating disorder is more common in vegetarian teens than in the general teen population. (1)
  • Vegetarian teens were found to be 2x as likely to diet frequently, 4x as likely to diet intensively and 8x as likely to abuse laxatives. (2)
  • 20-25% of current and former vegetarians were found to be taking part in unhealthy weight control behoviors including taking diet pills, abusing laxatives and purging. (1)
  • College women who claimed to be vegetarians had a significantly greater risk of developing eating disorders than did those who ate meat. (1)
  • Vegetarian males made up an especially high risk group for unhealthy weight control practices. (1)

In summary, vegetarian does NOT automatically = healthy.  When done properly and for the right reasons, being a vegetarian can be an appropriate lifestyle, but there is not enough information to suggest that a diet which includes meat and is based on recommended guidelines is not equally as beneficial as vegetarianism.  Furthermore, it is important to be knowledgeable about the risks associated with being a vegetarian, specifically that it can be a red flag for an eating disorder. 

Parents who observe their child becoming a vegetarian and believe it may be stemming from a desire to lose weight or that it might be related to an eating disorder can call our admissions coordinators at (410) 938-5252 for more information.

Contributions by:  Hannah Huguenin, MS, RD, LDN and Courtney Perkins, RD, LDN

References

1. Robinson-O’Brien C, Perry CL, Wall MM, Story M, Neumark-Sztainer D: Adolescent and Young Adult Vegetarianism: Better Dietary Intake and Weight Outcomes but Increased Risk of Disordered Eating Behaviors. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 2009; 109(4):648-655

2.  Klopp SA, Heiss CJ & Smith HS. (1997). Self-reported vegetarianism may be a marker for college women at risk for disordered eating. Available at http://plaza.ufl.edu/chvaugha/Veggie%20paper.pdf

Published by Kate Clemmer
August 24th, 2009 in Body Image, Celebrity Topical News, Editor's Picks, In the News, Nutrition
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Did You Know That March is National Nutrition Month?

 

An Overview of NUTRITION THERAPY for Eating Disorders

Most would agree that nutrition plays a vital role in our lives and health. Individuals with eating disorders are no exception. Since concerns related to food and eating are a main component of an eating disorder, issues and goals related to nutrition become critical to the recovery process.

The primary goal of nutrition therapy is to assist in normalizing eating patterns; this includes adequately meeting the body’s nutritional needs, incorporating a wide variety of foods, increasing one’s awareness of body signals and becoming comfortable in one’s relationship with food. Other aspects of nutrition therapy include: monitoring weight and weight trends, discussing symptoms, meal planning and goal setting.

Benefits of nutrition therapy in eating disorder treatment can be seen in both the short and long term. As with other pieces of the recovery process, eating patterns will not necessarily change quickly. However, working with a registered dietitian (RD) can help support and encourage goal development, and enhance the overall treatment process. This is especially beneficial when nutrition therapy is used in conjunction with other aspects of treatment such as individual, group or family therapy.

March is National Nutrition Month.  It is a great opportunity to learn new facts about nutrition and reflect on any personal nutrition-related goals. If you are struggling with an eating disorder or disordered eating, you may want to consider working with a food and nutrition expert - a registered dietitian – for individual nutrition therapy.

Visit the Nutrition Therapy page on our website to learn more about the importance of nutrition services in the treatment of eating disorders. To speak with someone from The Center for Eating Disorders about meeting with one of our Registered Dietitians, please call (410) 938-5252. 

Written by Samantha Lewandowski, MS, RD, LDN, the Center for Eating Disorders’ Outpatient Nutritional Care Coordinator

Published by Kate Clemmer
March 9th, 2009 in Nutrition
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