Eating disorder recovery is hard. For many people it is the hardest thing they will ever have to overcome. Not only that, but it can be lonely as those who have never suffered from an eating disorder do not understand how complex these disorders are and say very unhelpful things like, “just eat more.”
Even more heartbreaking is how our loved ones sometimes burn out and lose patience with the process well before we are recovered. Eating disorders take significant time and energy to recover from. Yet, people do recover. Personalized, holistic approaches to nutrition complement your therapy and doctor visits to help you move through recovery.
Eating Disorders are Complex and Multifaceted
From the outside, an eating disorder looks like someone who is eating or not eating in ways that are harming their bodies. But, we know that eating disorders are complex mental health conditions that have severe consequences to both body and mind.
Eating disorders are deeply tied to emotions, genetics, biology, and eating habits. There is new research coming out that shows that eating disorders may even be related to the state of our microbiome in our gut. To complicate things further, there are a whole host of comorbid (pre-existing) conditions that can contribute to the development and sustaining of eating disorders.
Common comorbid conditions include:
- Depression
- Anxiety disorders
- Obsessive compulsive disorder
- Post traumatic stress disorder
- Substance use disorder
- Personality disorders
- Body dysmorphic disorder
- Neurodevelopmental disorders: ADHD, Autism
- Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)
- Type 1 and 2 diabetes
- Hypotension
- Metabolic syndrome
- Perimenopause
- Infertility (Hambleton, 2022)
There are many others that are not listed here. As you can see, these conditions all have their own set of treatments that are necessary. Eating disorders add an additional layer of complexity to treatment.
Eating Disorder Consequences
The consequences of an eating disorder impacts every body system. These consequences are serious and often life threatening. Eating disorders have the 2nd highest mortality rate of any mental health condition (they were number one for years until recently when Opioid misuse squeezed past) (hopkinsallchildren).
Here are some of the medical complications experienced by eating disorder sufferers:
- Worsening or development of anxiety disorders and mood disorders
- Compromised heart health that ranges in severity up to cardiac arrest
- Cancer – higher mortality
- Gut disorders
- Weak bones and bone loss
- Poor oral health
- Vitamin deficiencies
- Poor cognitive function – in kids and teens cognitive development slows or stops and the damage can be irreversible
- Increased rates of infertility
- Hormone dysregulation
Clients in Larger Bodies and Eating Disorders
We need to take a moment to address eating disorders in people of all sizes. There is a strong stereotype stating that you can spot a person with an eating disorder by looking at them. They will be emaciated. Often we also assume they are white teenage girls.
The truth is that eating disorders impact people of all shapes, sizes, races, nationalities, gender, etc. Eating disorders do not discriminate, they impact anyone and everyone. The sad reality is that many people do not seek help. While they may be suffering, they assume that they are the problem and if they could just lose another x amount of weight they would finally be “like everyone else.” They would finally be healthy (and don’t get me started on the problems with how we have moralized size and health, yuck).
Here’s a sobering statistic for you. Only 2% of those who meet criteria for an eating disorder are “underweight” (Sonneville, 2018). The vast majority of eating disorder sufferers are in what we have labeled “normal,” “overweight,” and “obese” bodies. These terms are stigmatizing and problematic to say the least. For more on that, check out my blog posts: “Wait! There is more to weigh in the conversation about weight” and “Navigating Weight Stigma at the Doctor’s Office”.
You deserve healing from your eating disorder no matter your size. Or your race. Or your gender. Or any other thing about you. The physical and mental consequences of an eating disorder start immediately. They do not wait until you have become “underweight.” So get help now. You deserve recovery.
Functional Nutrition & Health is About More Than What You Eat
In the world of nutrition there are a lot of “cookie cutter” approaches. The nutrition advice given is general and supposed to work for everyone. Only that doesn’t actually work.
Functional medicine and nutrition were created as a way to provide holistic and personalized care. This is important because we are all different. Functional nutrition seeks to understand you as a whole. At IFxN we believe that must include your mental and emotional health as well.
Often the words “root cause” get thrown about in the functional health world. It has become a bit of a catch phrase, but in essence, the goal is to understand where the problem begins so that we can understand how to stop the problem.
I often use this analogy: if you are looking at a small pool of water and notice there are ripples in the water do you try to stop the ripples or do you search for the drip? You look for that drip in order to solve the problem that is causing a disturbance in the pool, and that will then stop the ripples.
In that same way, if your body is the pond then your unwanted symptoms are the ripples. Trying to stop the ripples often leads to more ripples meanwhile the drip or the issue that started your ripples in the first place has not been addressed and may be getting worse over time. Functional nutrition looks for the drip.
Is there a place for functional nutrition in eating disorder recovery?
Absolutely! A personalized approach is incredibly useful in eating disorder recovery. No two people will experience an eating disorder in exactly the same way. While these conditions will have similarities, the development and sustaining of an eating disorder will vary widely.
Here are just a few key ways a functional approach to eating disorder recovery can make all the difference in your recovery.
Finding answers in the chaos.
Working together with your functional nutritionist you will uncover the various pieces to the puzzle of your eating disorder. Does it run in your family? Do you have a higher need for specific nutrients? Was there trauma that helped push this development along (trauma that you will then work with your therapist to help you heal).
Understanding all the ways our eating disorder developed and how it impacts us individually is powerful. We use curiosity and not judgement to understand. It is a lot easier to heal from something when we can see it and work to resolve it in our conscious brain.
Replenish Nutrients
This one seems obvious. Of course we will be working to improve your nutrient status in your body. We will use your symptoms and lab work to build a personalized plan prioritizing what your body needs first.
In addition, there is a growing body of evidence showing that some supplementation may be appropriate to improve outcomes with an eating disorder. Getting our nutrition from food is the best way to nourish our bodies, but there are cases when supplements may be warranted.
Restore Gut Health
So much of our health starts in the gut, and the state of our gut is particularly influenced by our diets. Eating disorders are not friendly to gut health.
The state of our gut also massively impacts our mental health. Therefore, working to improve gut health may be appropriate during eating disorder recovery. Getting a person nourished and eating again is only 1 of the important steps to full recovery.
Balance Hormones
Hormones are a luxury. When there is not enough in the bank we don’t get luxuries. Hormones require enough nutrients and energy in the body to function correctly. Functional nutrition helps you understand your body, hormones, and how to support both through your nutrition.
Build a foundation for long-term healing
Our bodies are constantly changing, evolving, and aging. Just when you think you’ve figured out your body and health, something changes.
One of the critical components of eating disorder recovery is learning to “hear” your body and to interpret those cues. This goes beyond the physical cues of hunger/fullness. This incorporates an understanding of all the different things our bodies communicate to us. Including pain, exhaustion, emotions of all kinds and strengths, etc.
Ideally, through the process of working with your functional nutritionist you begin to really understand and work towards appreciation of your body. This sets a solid foundation for you to partner with your body throughout your life. If you understand your body you can also understand when things are “off” and work to resolve those things before they become more complex issues.
Healing an Eating Disorder is a Journey
It is human nature to seek a destination or resolution. Likewise, in eating disorder recovery we may think that recovery is about meeting a specific set of criteria or that it should look exactly like another person’s recovery.
In reality, eating disorder recovery is as unique as the person going through it. And rather than it being a destination, it is a journey.
I find that many of my clients are desperate to get to the other side of their eating disorder so they can put it in their rearview mirror and never look back. With all the pain and grief our eating disorders put us and our loved ones through that makes sense.
Unfortunately, eating disorders love to come back. To a person who feels they have recovered and finds themselves back in the throws of an eating disorder this can feel demoralizing. “I thought I had healed and made it to recovery, why is this back?”
Healing an Eating Disorder is About More Than Food, it’s Also About Supporting Your Brain
When recovering from an eating disorder we have to build new neurological pathways in our brain. Ones that allow us to make recovery choices rather than eating disorder choices.
This is my favorite analogy I use with my clients: let’s say for years you have been sledding down a very steep mountain on the same exact track. You have built this trail for your sled over a long period of time and you fly down the mountain. Yet over time a brick wall has been built at the bottom of your trail and you are tired of crashing, so you decide to make a new path.
Your new path on the other side of the mountain takes time. The snow is thick and fluffy, so you sit on your little sled and have to inch your way down the mountain. It is slow going, but as you work over time a little trail begins to form.
Some days we catch ourselves going down the old trail without even realizing it. So we bail off and climb back up the mountain and make the choice to go down the new path.
Eventually, the new path becomes smooth and more accessible and the old path will start to fill in a little, but it is still there. It doesn’t simply vanish. Meaning, it is always an option for us to go down.
There will be times in our lives where we are on the top of the mountain and it is storming. This may be during recovery or even years down the road. You are up there in a storm and didn’t even realize you were on your sled when you slammed into the brick wall.
This can be a scary time for someone who has worked so hard to build a new trail and recover from their eating disorder, but if we keep in mind that this is a journey, these slips down the mountain don’t have to lead to downward spirals into the full blown eating disorder again.
Journeys take time and can sometimes lead us back to places we have been before. If we can exercise some curiosity and self compassion we may find that these detours and back tracks have a lot to teach us, and we will be able to stay in recovery in a way that works best for us as an individual.
Functional nutrition is flexible as well and evolves along with your needs as you travel through your journey of recovery.
Getting Started with Integrative Functional Nutrition in Bountiful Utah
So, you are ready to start healing!
Here are a few first steps to get you going:
- Assemble your team. Start with trusted family and friends who can support you. Then look to find qualified professionals. It is important to work with doctors, therapists, and nutritionists who have been specifically trained in eating disorders. Here are some trusted providers that we recommend:
- Get really curious about what is going on in your head. Can you hear your eating disorder voice (the mean one that tells you why you aren’t good enough)? Can you hear your healthy voice? Start to observe all the ways your eating disorder impacts areas of your life. The more curiosity, without judgement, you bring to this the better (and when you do judge no judging yourself for judging!).
- Try to eat something every 2-3 hours to establish a more regular pattern of eating. This will help to signal to your body that food is coming and it will be okay.
- Keep going. Eating disorders are completely curable. You can heal.
Ready to assemble your team and wondering if functional nutrition is right for you? Let’s talk about it! Schedule your free 20-minute consultation so we can discuss your individual needs and connect you to the help you need and deserve.
Resources:
Hambleton, A., Pepin, G., Le, A. et al. Psychiatric and medical comorbidities of eating disorders: findings from a rapid review of the literature. J Eat Disord 10, 132 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-022-00654-2
Sonneville, K. R., & Lipson, S. K. (2018). Disparities in eating disorder diagnosis and treatment according to weight status, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic background, and sex among college students. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 51(6), 518–526. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.22846
