Tell me what you eat ...

• April 19, 2024

A Eating Disorder (TCA) or eating disorder is a disease caused by anxiety and by an excessive concern for body weight and physical appearance, related to the alteration of common eating habits.

In accordance with María Angélica Pérez García, president of Consult and Integral Consultancy for the Treatment of Anorexia and Bulimia A.C (CAITA) , adolescents and young people between 13 and 24 years of age are the main risk group in our country and more prone to suffer a disorder of eating behavior.

Although the incidence of eating disorder is higher in women, 7 out of 10 patients, there is currently a greater number of men who suffer, the Federal District being one of the entities with the largest number of cases, according to the National Nutrition and Health Survey of 2012.

The social and cultural factors are more influential to develop a disorder of eating behavior, rather than the marketing ones, because they are the problematic family environments, where a low self-esteem is handled, those that most intervene in the presentation of a disorder of this type .

Among the most frequent eating disorders, the following are presented:
 

1. Anorexia nervosa. The anorexia nervosa it is the disorder that has been most studied and is currently considered a serious psychiatric illness, characterized by the inability to maintain a normal healthy body in relation to weight, in which they develop alterations in other behaviors to perpetuate and increase the loss Of weight.
 

2. Bulimia . The main characteristic of this disease is that the person suffers episodes of compulsive bingeing , but the preoccupation with not gaining weight leads to compensatory control behaviors (vomit, laxatives, diuretics) to avoid weight gain, followed by a great feeling of guilt and a feeling of loss of control.
 

3. Binge eating disorder. It is characterized by recurrent intakes in which there is no compensatory behavior typical of the bulimia Nervous, which is the self-induction of vomiting, abuse of laxatives or other drugs, fasting and excessive physical exercise. It should be noted that 4 out of 10 overweight people are compulsive eaters.
 

4. Non-specific or atypical eating disorder (TANE or TA) . The TANE category refers to eating disorders that do not meet the criteria for any of the specific disorders recognized. Symptoms and behaviors of anorexia or bulimia are usually present, but do not meet all of the criteria.
 

5. Vigorexia . This disorder implies an addiction to physical activity and is characterized by the obsessive preoccupation with the physical and a distortion of the corporal scheme (dysmorphophobia) before the perception of being still too thin. Although men are the main affected by the vigorexia , is a disease that also affects women.
 

6. Orthorexia. It is a disorder derived from an obsessive behavior in which there is an extreme concern for health, which consists of eating only healthy, natural, organic and hormone-free products or preservatives.
 

7. Megarexia. It is a disorder in which who suffers, considers that excess weight is synonymous with strength and vitality, whose diet is rich in very fatty foods, junk food and high calories, but few nutrients. These are obese people who look thin because of the distortion of perception.
 

8. Diabulimia. Eating disorder consisting of bulimia experienced by some patients with diabetes 1 , in which the doses of insulin are reduced or omitted in order to control weight.
 

9. Hyperphagia. This disorder is characterized by the ingestion of excessive amounts of food and is manifested by an irresistible desire to eat without real hunger. The amount of food consumed is important and it is swallowed without chewing, which generates deep discomfort, a mixture of shame, guilt and self-disgust.
 

10. Pica. It is a pattern of ingesting non-edible materials, such as soil or paper, which is usually more frequent in the first years of life, but which, in more advanced stages, is used as a way to substitute food for the fear of climbing of weight.

A strategy that can be effective to prevent ACTs is to begin to identify among the young Mexican population, such as the university, those risky eating behaviors, such as lack of fasting, frequent diets, binge eating and the use of laxatives or purgatives, explains José Alberto Rivera, coordinator of the Master's in Social Medicine at the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM), Xochimilco unit .