Nutritional Issues

What exactly are eating disorders?

Eating disorders are not a phenomenon of recent years. However, they are a clinical condition that has increasingly attracted the interest of specialists who study them in depth. It may be surprising that this particular disorder appears mainly in developed Western societies, which are characterized by abundance.

Although research in this field has not yet answered all questions, most experts agree that it is a multifactorial phenomenon whose causes are complex and interconnected. For many years, eating disorders were considered illnesses primarily of endocrine origin (hence the terms anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa). The strengthening of psychological theories led to the idea of their psychogenic origin. For this reason, the terms psychogenic anorexia and psychogenic bulimia are also used.

But how exactly are eating disorders defined?

Anorexia

Psychogenic anorexia refers to the voluntary restriction of food intake, which leads to significant weight loss accompanied by serious psychological and physical disturbances (distorted body image, fear of gaining weight, loss of self-esteem, amenorrhea, edema, hypothermia, cardiac and endocrine abnormalities, etc.). In extreme cases, psychogenic anorexia can even lead to death.

Bulimia

Psychogenic bulimia is the occurrence of binge-eating episodes in individuals who cannot control their food consumption. These episodes are followed by various behaviors aimed at preventing weight gain (self-induced vomiting, use of laxatives or diuretics, excessive exercise, etc.). These episodes and their compensatory behaviors are also accompanied by psychological and physical disturbances.

When food becomes an obsession

From a certain perspective, psychogenic anorexia and psychogenic bulimia are directly