"eating disorder" news and stories

It's a dangerous world out there, folks. Should we add food blogging to that list of things to watch out for? That's the question posed by Leslie of The Weighting Game.

Leslie got a letter from a reader who originally asked this question about food blogging being addictive and possibly some kind of eating disorder. The reader had started a food blog, but soon realized that it made her obsess about food and actually "hide what (she) was eating from the internet." She has since stopped blogging.

Although I follow plenty of food blogs myself, I've never run across the type of blog that The Weighting Game and its commenters are talking about, the kind that is more of a food journal than a food blog. I personally think there's nothing wrong with sharing photos and recipes and having serious or fun discussions on food related topics. I do think this a great question to ask ourselves, though, so what is your opinion on food blogging as an eating disorder?

Scientists and researchers have no definitive answer about what causes anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder characterized by a strong, sometimes life-threatening, desire to avoid food. Many theories attribute its development to body image issues, while other studies have linked it to depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and other preexisting psychological conditions. A boy in Britain with an unusual eating disorder may provide some insight both into the cause of the disorder and the treatment.

The boy, who is only two years old, has refused all solid foods and almost all liquids since his birth, though he was physically capable of ingesting food without problems. As a result, his growth and development were stunted and a feeding tube had to be implanted to provide him with sufficient nutrition. Convinced that the problem was psychological, doctors at an Austrian hospital, working with the parents, tried a controversial technique of starving the child into eating. The tube was removed and the boy was surrounded with food, as well as by people who helped encourage him to eat. The theory is that the psychological problem cannot be resolved unless the affected person actively wants to eat.

At first, the boy ate nothing, but during the course of the three-week treatment he made progress. He began with water and progressed to milk, yogurt and finally to solid foods. His delighted parents say that he is now eating progressively more every day.

Is this a treatment that will work for everyone afflicted by anorexia? Probably not, but this case does provide support for the notion that, for at least some people, the problem has a psychological root and that it is not something untreatable.

Source

Doctors in India have quelled the hunger of a man known to eat buckets of rice and curry in a single sitting, the Hindustan Times reports. For the 64-year-old man named Rappai, eating hundreds of idlis (steamed lentil biscuits, left) in competitions was no big deal. He was apparently the bane of all-you-can-eat restaurants in Thrissur and Kerala, where he earned the nickname Theeta or "monstrous eater." Digestive problems seem to have eventually caught up with Rappai, however, and his doctors have told him to cool it. He has agreed, much to the joy of the local restaurant community, says the HT.