Dieting is so prevalent in American culture, especially among women. I was lucky growing up; my mother never “dieted” or complained about her weight. The only time I was exposed to this negative self-image was through friends’ parents. However, once I was old enough to be in sports, it became very clear that girls aren’t supposed to like their bodies. The entire girls cross country and track teams would stand around critiquing themselves and comparing to other girls in school as well as celebrities and sports stars. Some of my friends began consciously regulating their intake of food around 12 years old, calling it “dieting.”
Developing habits that don’t encourage eating a wide variety of foods in moderation at such a young age can produce dangerous relationships between teenage girls and food and become part of the perfect storm to produce an eating disorder. Instead, these young people learn that the best way experience food is to control, restrict, and cut “bad” food out of their diets. Often it seems like American culture views those people who are able to restrict their food intake or completely cut out carbs has having “a lot of self-control” or “better willpower” than those who indulge.
Having negative attitude toward food is only one aspect of the development of bulimia nervosa, also relying on genetics, female gender, cultural pressure, stress, and levels of drive for reward. However, it is an important aspect that I feel is often overlooked. The idea of sporadic “dieting” or control of food intake often looks similar to the eating disorder’s binge-purge cycle. This cycle is often dependent on biological mechanisms including hormones and neurotransmitters in the brain.
Studies have shown that individuals susceptible to eating disorders such as bulimia nervosa often turn to control of food because of some combination of anxiety/harm avoidance and deficits in inhibition. This may be triggered by increased stress, environment, emotions, or increased desire for reward or hunger (metabolism). The overeating that then follows (binge) will eradicate feelings of anxiety and produce pleasurable feelings through the release of serotonin (a neurotransmitter linked with pleasure and feelings of happiness). The purge portion of the cycle is more so to control feelings of guilt following the binge.
In bulimia, serotonin is often low, producing the feelings of uncontrolled emotions and anxiety. When the reward circuit in the brain is activated following a binge, more serotonin is present allowing the bulimic individual to feel in control again. In the same way, low estrogen in females may lead to impulsivity, feelings of being out of control and decreased feelings of satiation following eating. Lack of estrogen also desensitizes the brain to serotonin.
These hormonal and neurochemical changes in individuals with bulimia can be developed in puberty and early adulthood, which is why it is so important for young people, especially women, to have good eating habits. The chemical changes in the brain of an individual with bulimia are reversible if the individual is able to break the binge-purge cycle. Therefore, it is important to remember that it is not a matter of willpower involved in bulimia and that the “self-control” or willpower credited to those who “diet” in a restrictive manner negatively contributes to the challenges facing young American people.
Stop calling it “dieting”: bulimia nervosa is not a battle of the wills
