What exactly is disordered eating?

[TryingToLoveMyself]

Just wondering. I've tried googling it, but I kept getting mainly info on eating disorders, and very little on disordered eating.
My best friend thinks I have it. Though, I'm pretty sure I don't. Is it possible she's being oversensitive because she's had anorexia, and is on the verge of a relapse (she's talking to her stepmom about returning to treatment)?
Thanks for your help.

[moyshi239]

Hi Sam,

Here's a definition taken from the National Eating Disorder Center website...

Disordered eating includes a wide range of abnormal eating. This includes the behaviours seen in eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, chronic restrained eating, compulsive eating and habitual dieting. It includes irregular, chaotic eating patterns. Often physical hunger and satiety (fullness) are ignored.

Disordered eating has negative effects on overall health - emotional, social and physical. It may cause the individual to feel tired and depressed, decrease mental functioning and concentration, and can lead to malnutrition with risk to bone health, physical growth and brain development.

I believe that disordered eating means that you're showing early signs or habits of an eating disorder. As you can see, it's still very harmful to your health. Honestly think about if your eating patterns/behaviours have changed and if you're eating a healthy balance diet. Try talking to someone if you notice something has changed, because it's better to try and deal with disordered eating before it turns into an eating disorder.

Hope this helps. Take care! :]

[puala__koala]

moyshi239 pretty much covered it but heres some fun facts: there are many eating disorders that arent included in anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating disorder. these include:
-pica (or eating things that arent food)
-orthorexia (its basically where people stop eating any sort of food that isnt "healthy" but its more of an obsession)
-then theres another one, similar to bulimia, except the puke is eaten afterwards
-"chew and spit" -i dont think i need to explain this
-diabulimia (or something like that)- it basically diabetics who lose weight by skipping insulin

yeah i cant remember any more

[emma01]

I think that disordered eating pretty much describes the habits of anyone with abnormal thinking about food. Whether its constant or yo-yo dieting, obsessing over calorie, fat or carb/sugar content, constantly thinking about food, you know those sorts of things, BUT have not actually been diagnosed with an eating disorder...so rather than labelling someone with an eating disorder when they have never been diagnosed, you could say they have disordered eating. Except, the above posts pretty much say it all...i failed to read them before I typed this out, but im not going to delete this now

[TryingToLoveMyself]

Thank you, guys. I personally don't see the issue with my eating habits, but a couple people apparently do. :/ But thanks again guys