EP 2.1: MORE THAN FOOD

Welcome to the second season of Triad Warriors: The Podcast!

I hope that you all are having a great summer so far. It has been a couple of months since we wrapped up with the last season, but I have been hard at work putting together the second season, which is titled “More Than Food”.

In this season, we are going to be talking about the many, many factors that contribute to disordered eating and the development of eating disorders. In addition, we are going to define and discuss the vast spectrum of disordered eating and identify ways in which you can go about building a healthier relationship with food.

I have several guests who will be joining us on this season, including Dr. Charlotte Nowak, ND, Nadine Roy, LPC, Natasha Ngindi, nutritionist and Zumba instructor, Abbie Benson, RD, and Priscilla Gombach, a Community Health worker.

Further, I myself will be solo hosting many of the episodes, discussing everything from biological factors to psychological factors to environmental factors and more! The goal of this season is to help you identify the root causes of distress, as well as the contributing factors within your relationship with food, whether you struggle with disordered eating or not.

With that said, please make sure that you have listened to the first season before listening to this season. In the first season, we laid the groundwork for what is about to come. In the first season, we explored the concept of having a relationship with food, and we looked at nine different ways in which one can relate to food. Further, we used the Enneagram as our framework for exploration.

If you are not familiar with the Enneagram, EP 1.1 will help to explain the basics. However, the Enneagram was NOT the most important part of these episodes.

Instead, the most important part was YOU and what these episodes meant to you. In fact, the hope and intention of season 1 was to help you to explore your own personal relationship with food. The goal was to help you to identify your own experiences and to help you to define your own relationship with food, ultimately so that you could begin moving toward a healthier, more balanced relationship. Moreover, the goal was to establish a foundation for season 2!

As I already mentioned, this season is titled, “More Than Food,” because how we relate to food IS about MORE than just food. In fact — as we will uncover — things like trauma, genetics, digestion, chemical imbalances, food insecurity, dieting, cultural ideals, life changing events, relationships, etc. can all impact the ways in which we feel, act, and behave around food.

Consequently, building a healthier relationship with food is often about MORE than “ditching the diet,” though that IS a large part of it. Nonetheless, building a healthier relationship with food is often about healing — deep healing.

Building a healthier relationship with food is about recognizing that food is just food, and at the same time, building a healthier relationship with food is about recognizing that food CAN be and HAS BEEN about more than just food. In fact, food can and has played many roles in our lives, and food has often become the thing through which we have sought control, comfort, identity, and more.

With that said, I want to begin this conversation with a brief definition of and discussion on disordered eating.

THE SPECTRUM OF DISORDERED EATING

Typically, when someone thinks of eating disorders and/or disordered eating, someone thinks of an emaciated girl, who refuses to eat… which is one of the LARGEST misconceptions regarding disordered eating and eating disorders. In fact, less than 6% of those diagnosed with an eating disorder are clinically under-weight, and 30% of all ED cases are male. Further, weight is not a good indicator of health, nor overall wellbeing. Period.

Moreover, disordered eating can include anything from an obsession with “clean eating” to chronic dieting to laxative abuse and more. Disordered eating can also include fasting for weight loss, excessive exercise to compensate for eating, other forms of purging, steroid usage, so on and so forth. Many of which are encouraged behaviors by our society and by our peers.

Essentially, disordered eating occurs along a spectrum. 

At one end of the spectrum, we have DSM diagnosable disorders, such as anorexia, bulimia, Binge Eating Disorder, Pica, Rumination Disorder, and Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder. And, on the other end of the spectrum we have an intuitive eater. In between is everything else.

Consequently, dieting is by default disordered and, depending upon the individual, can be a very slippery slope. This is one of the many reasons that I am anti-diet, and one of the many reasons that ditching the diet is a PART of healing your relationship with food. But again, ditching the diet is typically NOT the only step in building a healthier relationship with food.

Nonetheless, we are unable to heal the deeper parts of this relationship if we are still engaging with black and white, restrictive, and disconnected world of diet culture, regardless of what else we have been doing to heal.

In fact, the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA for short) reports that 35% of dieters progress to pathological dieting and 20-25% of dieters develop an eating disorder. Further, a child is 242 times more likely to develop an eating disorder than Type 2 diabetes, yet we spend far more time focusing on restricting sugar and controlling our children’s weight, than we do on helping our children (and ourselves) to develop an intuitive relationship with food.

Consequently, 42% of 1st-3rd grade girls want to be thinner. 81% of 10-year-old children are afraid of being fat. 46% of 9–11-year-olds are “sometimes” or “very often” on diets, and 91% of college women admitted to controlling their weight through dieting.

This is a HUGE problem considering the fact that dieting is a 72-billion-dollar industry within the United States. And if we look to the Global diet industry, that number then increases to $254.9 billion. We will get more into the influences of diet culture when we talk about social influences later in this season, but the major takeaway for now is that a degree of disordered eating has been normalized by society.

Thus, I am not ONLY talking to people who have been diagnosed with an eating disorder. I am not ONLY advocating for those at the far end of the spectrum. I am talking to anyone and everyone who has ever dabbled in the world of dieting. I am talking to anyone and everyone who has ever found themselves feeling anxious, guilty, shameful, or confused about food.

I am talking to anyone and everyone who eats food.

Our society’s obsession with thinness and eating “clean” makes it extremely difficult to have a healthy relationship with food and bodies, and you have likely felt that influence. Nevertheless, freedom IS possible, and freedom IS worth the fight. Personally, I have been given back so much of myself and my life through recovery and through healing my relationship with food.

My hope is that you can experience that freedom and healing too. My hope is that this season can help you to identify some of the deeper complexities and deeper areas of hurt which have contributed to the current fabric of your relationship with food. Moreover, my hope is that you feel encouraged to seek help where needed, whether that be from a therapist, a nutritional therapist, a dietitian, a doctor, or some other health care provider.

But before we hop into the season, I want to clear up a few more myths and misconceptions about disordered eating. In addition, I would like to briefly outline what lies ahead.

With that said, I do want to insert a little plug here. Several people have asked me how they could support my work, and so, I have set up a Patreon account! Currently, I have two different price points, each with two different sets of benefits, and both which will directly support me, Triad Warriors, and the work that we are doing to raise awareness around mental health and disordered eating!

In addition, the second price point will give you access to my Morning Memo emails, which I used to send once upon a time. I am now bringing back them back!

Basically, if you want access to MORE tips and tools, as well as freebies and workshops, then check out my Patreon account! Or, if you simply want to support the show, then you can do that through Patreon as well. The link can be found in the description of this episode and/or on IG. I greatly appreciate your support and I am looking forward to seeing where this thing goes!

THE MYTHS AND MISCONCEPTIONS

Anyhow, let’s get back to the show, starting with myths and misconceptions.

Unfortunately, there are MANY myths and misconceptions surrounding disordered eating and eating disorders. Part of this has to do with the fact that mental health is still a largely stigmatized aspect of healthcare, though there have been improvements within recent years. And another part of this has to do with that fact that those who have not struggled with an eating disorder or disordered eating find it all hard to understand, though there has also been an improved awareness over the past couple of years.

Further, the current fabric of healthcare (as we have already discussed) continues to be defined by weight-normative treatment, and the wellness industry continues to spread pseudo-science all over social media and other media outlets.

Consequently, the myths and misconceptions that people like myself are working so hard to dispel, continue to persist and refuse to die. And so, we must continue to address these myths and misconceptions and we must continue to advocate for change.

With that, I am only going to touch on 3 of the most common myths/misconceptions today. There are many, many more, and we simply do not have the time to address every single one of them in today’s episode. But I believe that the most important ones to address are as follows:

MYTH #1

Myth #1: Anorexia is the only serious, life-threatening disorder.

The Truth: Bulimia, Binge Eating Disorder, and Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorders (OSFED) have mortality rates that reach just as high as those seen in anorexia, and the sub-clinical disordered eating that we already discussed can be dangerous as well. One such example is Keto, which can lead to nutrient deficiencies, digestive complications, and other major health concerns. 

MYTH #2

Myth #2: My loved one eats, and I don’t see her or him engaging in disordered behaviors, therefore, she or he must be ok.

The Truth: People with eating disorders eat. If they didn’t, then they would die within a matter of weeks. Restriction is OFTEN a part of disordered eating, but that does not mean that you won’t ever see that person eating. Furthermore, most eating disorders and disordered eating behaviors happen in the closet. Not seeing someone struggle, is not enough evidence to write someone off as ok, especially if they have expressed concern or distress about food and/or their bodies. 

MYTH #3 

Myth #3: I am not “sick enough” to receive help.

The Truth: There is no such thing as “sick enough.” You or someone you love can be severely struggling in their relationship with food and body WITHOUT a diagnosable eating disorder. And, because early intervention increases the odds of a full recovery, it is far better to intervene at these early, less serious stages than it is to wait until someone meets the DSM criteria for an eating disorder.

With that said, there are MANY other myths and misconceptions, which are outlined on the National Eating Disorder Association’s webpage. You can go check that out if you want to! There are also a lot of other great resources on their webpage, as well as information for contacting the help line, should you need it.

THE CONTRIBUTING FACTORS

But for now, let’s finish today’s episode with a brief overview of the contributing factors.

As I mentioned in season 1, eating disorders and disordered eating are caused by a complex combination of genetic, environmental, and sociological factors. I do not currently work with clinically diagnosable eating disorders, but in my work as a nutritional therapist with female athletes, time and time again we have come across a vast array of underlying influences.

Everything from family dynamics surrounding food to having mothers and fathers who were constantly attempting to control and to manipulate their own bodies through dieting to coaches who insisted upon weight loss for faster times to sexual abuse and trauma has arisen, and various forms of approach and referral were made.

Ultimately, the way in which we related to food (and our bodies) is quite complex, and a few of the factors that influence this relationship are as follows:

BIOLOGICAL FACTORS

First off, we have biological factors.

Biological factors include genetic predisposition, family history, and co-occurring diagnoses such as depression, anxiety, and/or substance use. Further, genetics accounts for 54-83% of the risk factors in developing a full-blown eating disorder, and brain abnormalities are now recognized as key risk factors in the development of eating disorders.

We will be getting into these factors more over the next couple of weeks, so I will leave the description there for now.

PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS

Next, we have psychological factors. Psychological factors can include the co-occurring diagnoses already mentioned, as well as personality traits such as perfectionism, low self-esteem, shame, distorted body image, impulsivity, and trauma.

With that said, trauma is a HUGE contributor in the development of disordered eating and eating disorders. In fact, 33% of women with bulimia, 20% with BED, and nearly 12% of non-bulimic/non-binge eating disorders meet the criteria for PTSD, and both PTSD and eating disorders have high rates of dissociation. Further, ED behaviors are often used to avoid thoughts and emotions related to trauma.

ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL FACTORS

Finally, we have environmental and factors. Environmental factors include things such as poverty, food insecurity, gender stereotypes, racism, and the demonization of cultural foods, all of which play a HUGE role in the availability of consistent access to nourishing and sufficient food. Moreover, these factors also contribute to the quality of health care (or lack thereof) and the “health” and “beauty” standards that are pushed forth by society.

Other, social factors include things such as family dynamics, family beliefs and discussions around food/weight/self, and media portrayals of health, success, and beauty. Further, environments that are highly focused on body appearance and weight (such as we see in athletics) can contribute to the development of an eating disorder.

In fact, athletes report higher rates of excessive exercise than non‐athletes, and up to 62% of female athletes and 33% of male athletes struggle with some degree of disordered eating, depending on the sport. Moreover, athletes may be less likely to seek treatment for an eating disorder due to stigma, accessibility, and sport‐specific barriers.

CONCLUSION

Evidently, there are many factors that can influence our relationship with food, and we have only scratched the surface today. But don’t you worry, over the course of this season, we will dive deeper into each topic!

To start us off next week, I will be discussing the many biological influences, focusing primarily on genetic influences and brain abnormalities. Then, on EP 2.3, Dr. Charlotte Nowak, ND will be joining us for a discussion on the connection between digestive dysfunction and disordered eating. She will be sharing her own story, as well as a ton of helpful knowledge and wisdom.

Following that, I will then discuss psychological factors, including a discussion on the roles of self-esteem and shame within disordered eating. Nadine Roy, LPC will then join us to discuss trauma, substance abuse, and eating disorders on EP 2.5.

We will then move into discussing environmental and sociological factors. On E.P. 2.6, I will discuss the role of family and peer influences, and then Natasha Ngnidi will join me to discuss diet culture, movement, and body image.

Then, Abbie Benson, RD will join me in a discussion on the unique pressures that athletes face, and Priscilla Gombach, will discuss roles of food insecurity and environmental/community influences. Finally, I will finish off the season with a solo episode on the roles that sexism and the patriarchy play within the development of disordered eating and dieting.

Basically… we have a lot of ground to cover, and I am SO excited for the many unique perspectives that we will be hearing from this season! So, buckle up and tune back in next week. I am Annie Randall, this is Triad Warriors, and food freedom starts here.