Disordered eating vs. eating disorders
What’s the difference between disordered eating and an eating disorder?
The difference between disordered eating and an eating disorder is that an eating disorder takes a larger toll on a person’s mental and physical health.
Think of a spectrum, where normal eating is on one side, and an eating disorder is on the other– disordered eating is in the center. As we move further away from normal eating, we get more preoccupied with food and body, more distressed with eating, and we are more likely to experience physical implications as well.
What is normal eating?
Normal eating is eating that is flexible and consistent. It can be eating just for fun, and it’s also eating to ensure we are properly fueled — aka, getting the energy and nutrients we know our bodies need. This kind of eating typically takes up very little emotional and mental energy— so in a way it’s rather uncomplicated. Normal eating is what most parents are trying to support in young kids, and it’s also what people who are recovering from an eating disorder are aiming to return to or create for the first time.
What does normal eating look like:
Sleeping in and having a late breakfast, then having a late lunch or snack because your body wasn’t as hungry.
Packing your lunch and snacks for your busy day after waking up on time to have breakfast.
Leaving the house late, and picking up something from the cafeteria for lunch because you know you’ll need it and you didn’t have time to prepare anything.
Having the slice of cake at the birthday party even though you’re full.
Declining the slice of cake at the birthday party because you’re full.
What is an eating disorder?
An eating disorder is preoccupation on food and/or body that negatively impacts nearly every area of life. With an eating disorder, food choices are typically distressing, preoccupying or limiting, and typically the body is suffering from the impacts of eating in ways that are out of sync with the body’s needs.
What does an eating disorder look like:
Feeling anxious or guilty if you eat outside of a certain number.
Feeling distressed and preoccupied by the way you look so being unable to attend a gathering.
Feeling nervous about eating something out of your norm, so declining a dinner invitation.
Eating so much that you feel sick, then feeling you must workout the next day.
What is disordered eating?
Disordered eating is in the middle of the spectrum, somewhere between normal eating and an eating disorder. People struggling with disordered eating may not feel like they are struggling at all, especially with all the cultural praise for being “healthy” or having “willpower.” Many engage with dieting behavior or have distress around eating, but it doesn’t impact many areas of life, or if it does it is not severely impactful. Someone with disordered eating might feel guilty after eating foods they deem “unhealthy”, but then go on to forget about it and focus on more important things the next day. Disordered eating is a risk factor for developing an eating disorder, but many people have disordered eating tendencies, especially considering how much diet culture praises dieting behavior! While we don’t endorse disordered eating, it is important to note that there are definitely people who engage in it without it developing into anything life altering. That being said, disordered eating can slide over the spectrum to an eating disorder and it obviously has risks and downsides.
Examples of disordered eating:
Intermittent fasting
Feeling guilty because you ate more than you feel you should have
Cutting foods out of your diet
Exercising only to alter your body shape, or solely to prevent weight gain
Resources:
Ellyn Satter Institute: https://www.ellynsatterinstitute.org/?attachment_id=21819
