EATING DISORDERS

Eating Disorders

Eating Disorders

According to the National Eating Disorders Information Center, eating disorders primarily affect women of childbearing age, with an estimated 5.7 percent of the population who experience an eating disorder. While the study results are inconclusive, it is estimated that 1.9 percent of pregnant women develop an eating disorder. Eating disorder during the childbearing years is not a widely researched area, and knowledge about the relationship between eating disorders and conception, pregnancy and after delivery is limited.

Eating disorders in general

It is estimated that approximately 3 percent of women experience an eating disorder in her life. Women between the ages of 15 and 64 are at risk of developing an eating disorder, in all likelihood even greater for younger women. The latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders describes the definitions of bulimia nervosa (BN), anorexia nervosa (AN), and eating disorders not otherwise specified (EDNOS). BN is defined by recurrent episodes of binge eating offset by purging, including vomiting, abuse laxatives or other medications, and / or fasting or excessive exercise. Compensatory behaviors occur at least twice a week for a period of three months.

A is defined as the refusal to maintain a minimally normal weight for age and height, along with an intense fear of gaining weight or being overweight. EDNOS covers a range of conditions, and is the most common of all eating disorders. This category includes persons who meet the same criteria that the National Assembly, except in women is not a continuation of regular menstrual cycles, or, despite significant weight loss, weight is within the normal range. Moreover, the individual can match all the criteria for BN, except that the binge eating and compensatory behaviors are less frequent than twice a week for three months. Other criteria for EDNOS include regular use of compensatory behaviors in an individual of normal body weight after eating small amounts of food and / or repeatedly chewing and spitting out large amounts of food without swallowing (Pamela, 2005).

Although the DSM-IV classifications of AN, BN and EDNOS are widely accepted as standard within the medical community, this type of classification does not take into account the broader cultural influences in the body of a woman and the etiology of eating problems disordered. Consistent with the personal is the political facet of feminist theory, which is that the symptoms of eating disorders can be seen as coping mechanisms in response to internalized oppression in society. It is noteworthy that eating disorders and dissatisfaction with body image are not exclusively for girl's pandemic white, Anglo-Saxon and women, as is often the public performance. Women of color, older women, poor women, pregnant women, women with disabilities, and lesbian women are left out of the media attention and public understanding of food issues, which is the result of the demographic situation of girls and women included in most eating-disorders and body image research. Theoretical eating disorders strongly advance the issues of eating disorders are not mere signs of ...