Eating healthy is very important for our everyday lives, but unfortunately, many people develop problems with body image which can prevent them from a healthy eating lifestyle. Eating disorders vary greatly from person to person, but one thing remains constant—they are very detrimental to a person’s health. They can be potentially life threatening! If you or someone you know suffers from an eating disorder, it is important to seek help as soon as possible.

The first kind of eating disorder that a person may develop is anorexia. Anorexia occurs when someone is overly concerned with weight and simply refuses to eat. Someone suffering from this disease usually tries to hide it by discarding the food without anyone knowing, cutting the food into small pieces to make it look smaller, or lying about skipping entire meals. Anorexia is dangerous because it does not allow a person to lose weight in a healthy way. Cutting fat out of a diet is fine, but not getting enough proteins, vitamins, minerals, water, and other nutrients can make your body lose muscle weight and weaken.

Another major type of eating disorder is bulimia. While you may notice an anorexic person losing lots of weight in a hurry, someone who has bulimia may or may not be losing weight. If a person has bulimia, he or she does not have the will power to give up foods, but instead vomits or uses laxatives after meals to rid the body of these foods. Like anorexia, this can rob the body of key nutrients, and it can also lead to problems in the digestive system, throat, and mouth, which are not made for regular induced vomiting.

The third main type of eating disorder is binge eating. This is a combination of anorexia and bulimia in most cases. A binge eater will, like a bulimic, not deprive his- or herself from food. In fact, someone who is a binge eater will eat enormous amounts of food in a single sitting, and often these foods are not high in nutritional value. Instead of vomiting, a binge eater will then refuse to eat at all and exercise rigorously for a day or two, but then slip into a binge once again. This leads to major problems with weight.

Eating disorders can affect both males and females, as well as people of any race, ethnicity, or age. Most commonly, victims of eating disorders are teen and young adult girls. Many people die every year due to complications with eating disorders, but if you or someone you know suffers from this problem, help is available.

On a personal note, this subject is quite sensitive to me. During my preteen and teen years, I was one of those above mentioned girls unhappy with their body image. I had bad self-esteem, was extremely shy and very secretive. My own parents did not know what was going on until I was in my thirties and finally divulged my "secret". Needless to say, my mother was shocked and said she had no idea I was hiding an eating disorder called bulimia. She didn’t even know what it was and has wondered ever since how she could have missed it.

Of course, I have the dreaded "acid reflux" with all the severe heartburn and digestive issues that come with it. Purging is something I have to make an effort "not" to do when my stomach is upset or I eat a bite too much of dinner. I have to admit that I do NOT have bad self esteem anymore, I’m actually quite proud of what I’ve achieved in my life so far and plan on doing lots more before I leave this earthly place. It was a phase in my life that I’m not proud of at this time, but it is a part of who I have become and has enabled me to mentor quite a few tweens and teens through the rocky teen years and, hopefully, help them to navigate to a safe and healthy mental and physical state.