Is anorexia or bulimia caused by poor food education?

Question

Is there any correlation between anorexia/bulimia and a lack of healthy eating education? Whereby people are not taught how much and what to eat to maintain a healthy weight, so they turn to drastic measures to stabilize and attain an ideal?

Answer 1

As a recovering anorexic, I can assure you that we are more educated about food than most. It has nothing to do with food education. It has to do with a desire to be in control of ourselves through what we put in our mouth.

We know, more than the average Joe, what foods are healthy, what foods are high calorie and low calorie, what foods provide great nutrition, what foods have different vitamins and minerals, etc. Most anorexics can tell you the amount of calories and fat in a type of food without looking at the package. We are almost experts at food. That's not the problem. The problem is we simply don't eat enough because WE DON'T WANT TO. We are scared of food and nutrition in a sense. We purposely deprive our bodies and we know what we are doing. We don't want to stop... or at least don't really know how because it's SOOO hard.

It's something you'd really have to experience first hand to truly understand. It's an emotional thing... it has NOTHING to do with poor education about food or nutrition. We likely could teach you a thing or two :)

Answer 2

no, it is considered to be a kind of mental disorder It can be caused by depression, because food brings feeling of happiness. People who suffer from Bulimia don't try to attain an ideal, they eat and purge because they are bored. Wasn't Diana taught how much and what to eat to maintain a healthy weight?

Answer 3

Well, it depends on the individual. I'm a recovering anorexic. My problem developed after I decided to extend the track season training regiment into the summer. I also took it upon myself to eat "healthier". I looked at a healthy eating model for a fully grown and developed woman, not a growing adolescent, in magazines and online. Slowly my "training" became obssesive. In many ways I WAS confused how to maintain a healthy weight. Yet many others do it because they feel overwieght, or need control. I've found that it is often a comibination of many factors. You can pinpoint just one.

Answer 4

Not always. Eating disorders are usually caused by warped outlooks upon the fashion and Hollywood industries that influence and give the message to individuals that "thin is the ideal." Girls develop eating disorders because they want to belong and fit in to a certain group and for people to see them as prettier/skinnier/etc. Most girls usually know what is right to eat, and know what is wrong, but convince themselves to believe that food, or too much of it, is "bad." Most girls already know about what to eat and what is healthy, but manage to get themselves to believe something else so that they can follow the habits they create. Many people feel severely pressured by society and their peers to look a specific way, and try to find a "simple way" to look that way, despite the consequences. A girl could just exercise and switch the soda and potato chips to healthy portions of fresh fruits, veggies, whole grains, protein, etc. or find a way to be more confident and to accept herself for who she is.

Answer 5

I think because you binge and purge you are bulimia because you are making your self be sick I am anorexic and I purge after everything I eat but that's a personal opinion x

Answer 6

two totally separate diseases. we are born with the innate ability to know what is healthy for our bodies. any craving for a specific food is for whats in it. not the food item itself.
don't you think if you truly are anorexic or bulimic that just maybe its drastic all in itself?
who's responsible for taking care of your body? are you spoon or bottle fed?
both are serious and deadly diseases. just like fast food is not to blame UNLESS you have an addiction. either way it comes back to an INDIVIDUAL CHOICE.
anorexic/bulimia/overweight and addiction can be overcome with help. if you want it. and are willing to keep at it 24/7.

Answer 7

not usually. eating disorders are a lot more in depth than that.
Anorexics are usually perfectionists striving to maintain order and controll in their life by restricting their diet.
Bulimics can be people who were molested and sexually abused, they use food in a variety of ways to take controll of things (anorexics may have had the same problems as bulimics)

Answer 8

It can be but most people who have suffered from those conditions are insecure about their body.