Overview

An eating disorder is a compulsion to eat, or avoid eating, that negatively affects both one's physical and mental health. Eating disorders are all encompassing. They affect every part of the person's life. According to the authors of Surviving an Eating Disorder, "feelings about work, school, relationships, day-to-day activities and one's experience of emotional well being are determined by what has or has not been eaten or by a number on a scale." Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are the most common eating disorders generally recognized by medical classification schemes, with a significant diagnostic overlap between the two. Together, they affect an estimated 5-7% of females in the United States during their lifetimes. There is a third type of eating disorder currently being investigated and defined - Binge Eating Disorder. This is a chronic condition that occurs when an individual consumes huge amounts of food during a brief period of time and feels totally out of control and unable to stop their eating. It can lead to serious health conditions such as morbid obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Emotional Eating - Is It Greed?

I was an emotional eater for many years. This inevitably led to me being overweight. I never considered myself a greedy person. Mostly I ate really healthy - I am one of those rare people who enjoy vegetables and salad, I don't add butter to mashed potato and I love fish and chicken.

I don't particularly like sweet things and chocolate can be in my fridge for months and I would not consider eating it. Most days I would have a breakfast, lunch and evening meal and these would be reasonably healthy. I have never been into snacking for snacking sake.

So why was I so overweight?

All my life I have enjoyed food, if I go out it will normally be for a meal and some wine. Food has always made me feel good so I see it as part of my social life. In theory this should not be a problem, everything in moderation. However, food also became my emotional crutch and this is where the damage was done.

As soon as something emotional happened in my life I turned to food as a comforter. At the time I did not really care what it was, I just reach for the first thing that came to hand and ate it in seconds, often washed down with a glass of wine. So a stressful day at work, a disagreement with my husband, not knowing where my son was - you name it, anything that made me feel emotional made me reach for my comforter - Food.

So Is it Greed?

Emotional eating has nothing to do with greed. Often you are totally unaware that you are eating unnecessarily, your mind is so focussed on the issue that has affected you, your brain sends a signal to your body that it wants whatever it is that makes you feel good again and in this case it is food.

Most people who eat when emotional would not consider overeating at other times. However, after eating excessively the individual normally feels racked with guilt, knowing that they have gained nothing but weight.



Autor: Karen Fullick Karen Fullick
Level: Basic PLUS
My name is Karen, I am happily married to Malcolm and we have a great son called Sam. I have been a successful business woman ... ...

My name is Karen, I am happily married to Malcolm and we have a great son called Sam. I have been a successful business woman for many years and I now own and run my own company.

Like many of you I work and run the family home, arrange our social life and do everything to ensure we live life to the full. Well nearly everything, as up until recently there has always been something holding me back - yes you've guessed it - My Weight!

I have written a series of reports documenting my weight loss journey in which time I qualified as a Nutritional Therapist and made an amazing discovery to Fast, Effortless, Permanent, Weight Loss.

To receive your free reports click on the following link:
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karen@freetheslimyou.com


Added: September 27, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

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