In an effort to reduce the risk of eating disorders among its students, Harvard University is removing calorie counters from its dining hall.

"The school posted a blog on the issue: 'We need to address the challenge a quiet and surprisingly large contingent of our community faces with eating disorders. Those individuals place an undue emphasis on calories...'"

Student response was mixed, with some thinking it's a good idea, and others believing that students with eating disorders will simply get calorie information elsewhere. Source: CW56 News (Cambridge, MASS)

Labels: calorie_restriction, colleges, support

For Harriet Brown's daughter, the calorie counting that accompanied her eating disorder didn't stop with recovery. On the contrary, she found herself having to track her intake just as diligently as ever in order to re-gain and maintain a healthy weight.

"Like many recovering anorexics, Kitty has a fast metabolism that seems to burn calories at a higher than usual rate. So she needs to eat more than the average teenage girl to maintain her weight, and she will probably need to do this for years to come."

One of the challenges of recovering from an eating disorder is that the patient often has to break every food-related rule he or she established. Fruits and vegetables are good, but so are ice cream, potato chips, and other calorie-dense foods. Given that we live in a society that has clearly defined which foods are "good" or "bad", it can be a difficult shift to make, and parental support is vital.

Aspen Ranch, a residential treatment program in Utah, offers an equine therapy program that helps troubled teens work through their negative emotions and behaviors.

Labels: calorie_restriction, healthy_eating, nutrition

Prader-Willi Syndrome is a genetic disorder that causes a person to feel hungry all the time. The syndrome affects the hypothalamus region of the brain, which controls - among other things - feelings of fullness or hunger. Because someone with Prader-Willi always feels hungry, a serious eating disorder is developed that can cause life-threatening obesity.

"This problem is made worse because people with Prader-Willi syndrome use fewer calories than those without the syndrome because they have less muscle mass. The combination of eating massive amounts of food and not burning enough calories can lead to life-threatening obesity if the diet is not kept under strict control."

Other symptoms of Prader-Willi include decreased muscle mass, slower development of motor and language skills, and cognitive problems. Read more at NICHD.NIH.gov.

Labels: calorie_restriction, genes, hunger

Recent studies have some in the medical community raising their eyebrows and asking hard questions. The studies focus on a type of "diet" called Calorie Restriction and claim that reducing caloric intake may slow down the aging process. But is Calorie Restriction actually an unrecognized type of eating disorder?

"Although we don't know yet whether the longevity benefits extend to humans, a number of people have put themselves on draconian diets in the hope of living loner. They refer to their regimen as CR (calorie restriction) or CRON (calorie restriction with optimal nutrition), and they call themselves CRONies... Like anorexics, CRONies discover in starvation an apparent solution to their problems: a source of energy (at least at first), a sense of purpose, and relief from stress."

Thus far, no one from the eating disorder field has adequately explained the difference between calorie restriction and anorexia; why one is an accepted type of diet while the other is an eating disorder.

Read more at Slate.com.

Labels: anorexia, calorie_restriction, dieting