Over the past few weeks, we have focused mainly on having a body composition level that is consider higher than healthy levels (obesity) because of its prevalence in this country. But there is another side of body composition that we need to discuss because it affects many young people, eating disorders. Many of the people who are going through eating disorders tend to be on the lower end of a percent body fat scale, but not all (there are cases of individuals who are in an obese category suffering from an eating disorder as well).
To start off, everybody will need to learn what the various eating disorders are. For the government's take on the various categories, go to this webpage...
Click here for the NIH website on eating disorders
For information from those who truely work with people who have an eating disorder, go to this website...
Click Here for the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) website
For either of these websites, look at the various symptoms, warning signs, and health concerns of the differing eating disorders. This information may be slightly different than what many people think eating disorders are (such as just a drive to be skinny).
Research has even taken a turn towards genetics... not that genes cause eating disorders, but that it can set a person up for an eating disorder... Click Here for an introduction to research on eating disorders
In addition, if you go to the following website, you can see that there are many issues that could set up a person to start an eating disorder... Click Here for factors that may lead a person to start an eating disorder
One final resource for everybody. This video (2 minutes) provides a very good insight about eating disorders not being a choice. It mentions a lot of the outcomes that one can suffer from and provides a more positive message in the second half.
And finally, found on this webpage is a screening tool that can help a person look at his/her lifestyle to see if an eating disorder is currently or perhaps may affect them at some point. Please note (and the website says this), that this tool "is NOT an official diagnosis of an eating disorder", but it is a tool to discover some variables about oneself. Click the "take the anonymous screening" link at the bottom of the page.