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Picky Eaters Don't Have to be Kids...Not only that, their " pickiness" may come from motives besides mere food preferences. A man that I know refuses go to a restaurant without carrying his own food grinder along to puree his vegetables. Call it a quirk, call it eccentricity, but in the end, if behaviors are excessive, compulsive and inflexible, they are indicative of deeply felt anxiety, as well as the incapacity to address feelings productively and solve problems effectively. Is this an eating disorder? Is it simply about disordered eating? If people use food to resolve or camouflage their emotional problems, if underlying emotional issues include perfectionism, inflexibility, poor problem solving, excessiveness, control problems and compulsivity, the question remains moot. This is a person who is not living a free and fully actualized existence. Here's the other problem.......children look to parents as role models. It is confusing but true that food preoccupations, quirks or even dysfunctions that may be relatively speaking, "benign" for a parent, when observed and mimicked by a child, may result in a clinical eating disorder ofr that child. Kids who do not understand what healthy eating is, assume, as they watch their dieting parents, that fat is the enemy, that food is fattening, that restriction and dieting are the best and only way to lose weight and are key to health and thinness. In fact, these beliefs are what is leading to ever growing eating disordered and obese populations among American adults and children. Eating Disorders in middle-aged women...More and more women in their 30's, 40's and 50's are coming out of hiding, seeking help for eating disorders that they may have harbored secretly for as many as 20 to 30 years. Once considered an adolescent disease, anorexia and bulimia do not discriminate by age or life stage. The reality is that people who do not resolve these problems in their youth are destined to carry their disorders with them as a legacy into their adult years... into their careers, their professions, their marriages and their own parenting.Statistics show that mother with eating disorders have children who by age five are already less well-adjusted and more prone to be whiny and poor eaters. Vulnerability for the onset of a clinical eating disorder is carried in the genes, making it likely that moms with ED will have children who suffer from similar problems. If and when children begin to manifest food fears and compulsions and/or picky eating, ED moms are less prepared to nip imminent problems in the bud. The best immunity to the onset of clinical eating disorders is modeling a healthy eating and exercise lifestyle for children, in providing children with nutritious, balanced meals, and then sitting down to eat them together with the family….all of which are typically ominous tasks for ED mothers. Eating disorders are multi-faceted diseases, with implications for the status of a person's underlying emotional health, as well as for his/her behaviors around food, eating and weight management. Despite the fact that in most cases these disorders are likely to be held as secrets that are unknown to prospective marital partners, eating disorders and the issues that underlie them play a significant role in choosing one's life partner, with recovery ultimately holding the potential to disrupt what may be a seemingly secure marital system. About Abigail H. Natenshon CONTACT: |
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All Contents © Copyright 2000-2005 Abigail H. Natenshon |
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