What are some terms I should know?
Eating disorders affect about 1.4 million young Canadians, a number that grew during the COVID-19 pandemic. While people tend to use the terms “eating disorder” and “disordered eating” interchangeably, there are some important differences. Eating disorders are a life-threatening illness that can include a range of symptoms and behaviours, which we’ll describe in more detail below.
Eating Disorder
An eating disorder is a significant mental health condition where a person experiences distressing thoughts and emotions related to food, along with severe and persistent disturbances in eating behaviours. Eating disorders can have psychological, social and physical impacts that can be concerning. Researchers estimate that about 15-17% of young females and 5.5-8% of young males struggle with eating disorders, which puts them at risk for developing a range of physical health challenges. Eating disorders can vary from person to person, and symptoms can increase or decrease over time.
Disordered Eating
On the other hand, disordered eating is more common. This is where children or young people engage in behaviours that interfere with feeding themselves properly. This can include skipping certain food groups, restricting the number of calories you take in and so on. Often, disordered eating and eating disorders can start to emerge when a person begins dieting. Dieting is a socially accepted way of intentionally restricting food intake to lose weight. Between 12-30% of young females and 9-25% of young males report dieting to change the size or shape of their bodies. Dieting can become disordered when it becomes compulsive, and the scale and outcome of food restrictions significantly impact a person’s health.
Disordered eating can look different depending on the age of a child. In younger kids (typically in 3–6-year-olds), it’s common and normal for them to be “picky” about foods that they either like or dislike. This can become a problem, however, when they stop wanting to try new foods, they limit the variety of things they will eat (for example, only eating beige foods, or soft foods), or they show a significant aversion to things that aren’t what they want to eat (e.g., refusing to eat Wendy’s chicken nuggets because they only want McDonald’s ones). In most cases, children can get their nutritional needs met with a limited variety of foods and might only need a vitamin to provide an energy boost.
As a parent or caregiver, if you notice that your child is either not gaining or losing weight, if they appear to be stressed around food (and/or seem to feel safe only with certain foods), or their food preferences and avoidances start to impact their behaviours (like not going to a friend’s birthday party because “they probably won’t have the food I like to eat”), you may want to seek support. In older children or young people, disordered eating is most often linked with a heightened focus on body image.
Body Image
Body image (which also drives many eating disorders) is the mix of thoughts and feelings a person has about their body and how they look. This includes how a person sees their body (perceptual body image), how they feel about their body (affective body image, which can include being happy and satisfied or dissatisfied and disgusted), thoughts about their body which can cause them to be preoccupied with their body weight and/or shape (cognitive body image), and behaviours that a person engages in to try to change their body (behavioural body image). We all can struggle with body image now and then, even if we maintain a positive body image most of the time.
Body Dissatisfaction
Body dissatisfaction involves persistent and negative thoughts and feelings about one’s body, leading to a greater risk of developing disordered eating or an eating disorder in younger people.