Treatment Notes by Sari Fine Shepphird

Food Myths

Many of our patients and clients will come to us with unusual beliefs about food. Some of their beliefs may be based on popular "myths" about food. Yet, therapists and other non-dietitian healthcare professionals may hold some of the very same food and diet beliefs that our clients do.

Take a look at the list below and see if you may hold some beliefs about food that are actually food myths, rather than facts.

Body Image Boosters

My colleague and fellow writer, Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S., who has written some very helpful articles about body image and related issues for the popular mental health website www.Psychcentral.com, has passed along this link for improving body image...

I'd like to, in turn, share it with you. In this helpful handout, my friend Michael Levine, Ph.D. and his colleague Linda Smolak, Ph.D. share 10 "Willpowers" for improving body image.

Click here to read these body image boosters...and then pass them along to clients, patients, and/or loved-ones!

 

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Obesity Myths: Bias and Bologna

It has long been assumed that overweight people are inherently unhealthy people. Such has been the assumption, and perhaps, bias, of much of the population for years.

Two recent articles are relevant in this regard: one highlights popular myths about obesity and the other alludes to bias toward overweight individuals.

Hospitalizations for Eating Disorders are Increasing in the U.S.

My colleague, Dr. Ken Pope, has passed along this release issued by the U.S. Agency for Health Care Research and Quality:

More Americans Being Hospitalized Because Of Eating Disorders
 

A Word about the "Food Police": Toward a New Vocabulary in Eating Disorders Recovery

Every now and again in eating disorders work, we need to expand our vocabularies. Sometimes, patients come to appointments with new terms that we need to have defined for us, such as "sham eating", "thinspiration", and "Ana Boot camp".

In addition, as health-care professionals, we need to stay abreast of new findings that may expand or alter our eating disorders terminology. The shift in the use of "Binge Eating Disorder" rather than "compulsive overeating" is a good example in this category; the change from "morbidly obese" to "clinically significant obesity" is another.

Sometimes, we need to get rid of certain phrases altogether, when we find that they are confusing, out dated, misapplied, or otherwise not helpful. "Bulimarexia", and "manorexic", for example.

In the later category, I have a suggestion, and that is that we discontinue the use of the term "the food police", and especially when talking with parents about their children's eating behaviors. And here's why...

Prenatal Factors and Eating Disorders

We first learned in 2007 of a prenatal hormone connection to the development of anorexia nervosa later life. Now, a new study lends more support to this hypothesis.