Eating Disorders Essays (1733 words) - Eating Disorders, RTT

Eating Disorders Two million people in the world suffer from eating disorders, whether it is anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. Two thirds of teenage girls and one third of teenage boys do not like their bodies and the weights they are at. Many people suffer from related conditions like bulimia and anorexia but do not meet specific conditions to have their symptoms called that. This category is called unspecified eating disorders. Symptoms of unspecified eating disorders are restrained eating, binge eating, purging, fears of fatness, and distortion of body image. People suffer from eating disorders because of our society standards. Everyone wants to look like a supermodel but not everyone can. They start to obsess about being thin and looking at their normal body weight as being fat when actually they are at a healthy weight. When they start judging their bodies, they set restrictions on what foods they can eat and intense hunger sets in. Normally, they go on eating binges because of the severe hunger pains that they can not overcome. Weight cycling then takes place when dieters go on energy restrictions followed by bingeing. Weight cycling results in losses and gains of weight. This habit can make weight loss much harder over time because it messes up your metabolism. Among people with eating disorders, athletes; primarily dancers, gymnasts, and endurance runners, can be seen with these problems. Society sets guidelines on how thin an athlete should be. Coaches and parents encourage their athlete to meet these standards, forcing many stresses and psychological problems on the person. Female athletes are at greater risk to develop an eating disorder. Once they develop the disorder, they are most likely to assess the female athlete triad. If the female athlete gets these symptoms they develop the following chain of events: disordered eating, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis. Normally, a person pressuring them causes an athlete who displays these three symptoms to meet weight standards. An athlete's weight should be heavier than a non-athletes weight should be because they have more muscle mass and muscle weighs more than fat. They try to get their weight down by not eating or by going on eating binges and then purging. A better way to check your weight for an athlete is to check your percent body fat. For example, when I was in high school, my wresting team had to cut their weight so they could meet the criteria. They started to not eat meals anymore and then went on binges after they weighed in. Their coach forced these procedures on them to have a better wrestling team. Their percent body weight dropped to about 3 percent and they looked so unhealthy. Their eyes sunk into their heads, and they were always depressed. I definitely don't think any coach should pressure their athletes to do this. It is very unhealthy and causes major problems for the athlete. Why not have an athlete wrestle at their natural weight then have a wrestler suck their weight down by 20 pounds where it is unhealthy. The second symptom of the athlete triad is amenorrhea. Amenorrhea is when a female athlete does not menstruate for three months or more. Amenorrhea is as high as 66 percent in female athletes. This is caused by low estrogen levels, infertility and bone mineral losses. I think if a female has amenorrhea, why would they let it continue? It is so unhealthy, and it can do major damage to the body. You would think that if your period stops, you should do something about it because you know something is going wrong in your body. Some studies show that ballet dancers who suffer from amenorrhea with low body weight have more bone injuries then ballet dancers that have normal body weight. Other studies show that percentage body fat is not critical for normal menstruation: Nutrition Concepts and Controversies; Controversy 10. I think I would have to disagree with the study that thinks you do not need normal percent body fat. From my experience, I think a female does have to be at normal percent body fat to menstruate normally. My friend, who was a gymnast for 15 years of her life, never menstruated. It was not until she stopped gymnastics after her senior year in high school that she began to menstruate. Her physical demands of being thin and meeting certain weights were complete and her body responded normally. So I think percent body fat does play a role in amenorrhea. Osteoporosis is the third symptom of the athlete triad. Bone mass is