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Louisiana Action for Healthy Kids - Team Nutrition
Eating Disorders
The three most common eating disorders are:
- Anorexia Nervosa
- Bulimia Nervosa
- Binge Eating Disorder
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Anorexia Nervosa
People who suffer from this disorder have a fear of gaining weight because they see themselves as being fat, even when everyone else doesn't. They feel the need to become thinner and thinner and that the quickest way to lose weight is to not eat at all. Food, calories, and body weight take control of the person's life. Anorexics often become isolated. They stop seeing friends and having fun.
Signs and Symptoms:
- Missing periods
- Strange eating habits, like restricting certain foods or drastically reducing how much food you eat
- Feeling moody
- Denying hunger
- Extreme concern with body weight and shape
- Over exercising
- Significant or extreme weight loss
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Bulimia Nervosa
People who suffer from bulimia binge on large amounts of food in a quick, automatic, and helpless fashion. Then, they purge the food they have eaten by making themselves vomit, using laxatives, over exercising, or limiting their diets. Some people use a combination of all these forms of purging.
Signs and Symptoms:
- Sneaking food
- Making excuses to go to the bathroom after meals
- Eating large amounts of food on the spur of the moment
- Taking laxatives, vomiting, and/or over exercising to "purge" food
- Extreme concern with body weight and image
- Enamel on teeth begins to wear away, causing cavities
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Binge Eating Disorder
Binge eating is another type of eating disorder. Here, a person eats an amount of food larger than what others would eat in the same amount of time. When someone is bingeing, she usually doesn't have much control over how much she is eating. Binge eating is different from anorexia and bulimia because people do not regularly vomit, over exercise, or abuse laxatives after they have eaten.
Signs and Symptoms:
- Eating large amounts of food, even when not hungry
- Eating faster than normal
- Eating alone or in secret
- Eating until uncomfortably full
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More Information
The definitions, signs and symptoms provided on this Web page were obtained from the BodyWise section of the Girl Power Web site.
Visit the BodyWise Web site to read more about eating disorders. Some topics include: Body Image, Eating Right, Feeling Fit, Facts about Eating Disorders, and Keeping up with Your Body. Also provided on this Web site is the Resource Guide to Nutrition, Fitness, and Eating Disorders.
BodyWise
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