Everything has its limits, and so does eating.

Author: Wang Ying, Chief Physician of Tianjin Mental Health Center

Reviewer: Chen Jue, Chief Physician, Shanghai Mental Health Center

The Book of Changes says, "The sage knows how to advance and retreat, live and die, but he does not lose his integrity." In fact, everything has its own measure, and the test of advance and retreat is the word "degree." However, "degree" is difficult to grasp. For example, some people have long-term overuse of their eyes and their eyesight is damaged; some people have long-term over-exercise and their muscles and joints are damaged; some people have long-term overeating and their bodies are damaged.

Today we will take you to understand where the "degree" of eating is and what the standard of eating is. On April 26, 2022, the Chinese Nutrition Society released the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022)". The guidelines summarize the eight principles of a balanced diet:

1. Eat a variety of foods and match them reasonably.

2. Balance eating and exercise, and maintain a healthy weight.

3. Eat more fruits and vegetables, dairy products, whole grains, and soybeans.

4. Eat fish, poultry, eggs and lean meat in moderation.

5. Eat less salt and oil, control sugar and limit alcohol.

6. Eat regularly and drink plenty of water.

7. Know how to cook, select and read labels.

8. Use serving chopsticks to share food and avoid waste.

Dietary guidelines are an important measure for the country to promote rational food consumption, improve the scientific literacy of the people, and implement the Healthy China-Reasonable Diet Action.

Figure 1 Image from Chinese Nutrition Society

Dietary guidelines are good, but there are many difficulties in actual implementation. With the development of the times, more and more teenagers and young women have begun to pay attention to their physical development and gradually formed their own evaluation of their body shape, which is usually influenced by their peers and family members. "Slim waist, graceful neckline, graceful posture" seems to be a reflection of self-control and a special reward for oneself.

Eating properly and controlling your weight appropriately are good for your body, but excessive attention to your body shape can easily lead people astray. More and more people suffer from eating disorders due to excessive dieting, overeating and vomiting, and their physical condition gets worse and worse. In severe cases, they even lose their lives. Some people wonder what eating disorders are. If the standard of what you eat does not meet the dietary guidelines, does it count as an eating disorder? Do you need to adjust your diet and lifestyle, or do you need to go to the hospital to see a doctor for diagnosis and treatment?

Let us introduce eating disorders to you. Eating disorder (ED) is a cognitive dysfunction related to food, weight and body shape. It is a group of syndromes with abnormal eating behavior and excessive attention to food, weight and body shape as the main clinical features. It is a psychological disease characterized by eating behavior problems, which is caused by the combined effects of genetic, psychological, family, peer and other factors. It mainly includes anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder.

In a simple analysis, eating disorders include excessive undereating, excessive overeating, and vomiting. These have exceeded the standard of normal eating and reached the state of disease. In the process of dieting, the changes in people's body shape are reinforced by the external environment, which is more likely to aggravate the degree of dieting, resulting in a significant decrease in weight, changes in interest in food, and gradual appearance of body image disorders, psychological disorders, and physiological dysfunction. The boundary between dieting and binge eating is just a thin line, and I don't know when it will be crossed. When a light diet cannot satisfy the taste buds, there will be repeated strong desires for fasting and uncontrollable impulsive binge eating. At the same time, because of the fear of obesity, self-induced vomiting, catharsis, and excessive exercise are used to reduce calorie intake. This is a manifestation of anorexia nervosa. Frequent vomiting and abuse of laxatives can cause a series of physical complications, including dehydration and electrolyte imbalance, gastric acid and vomitus can cause tooth enamel corrosion, and a few people will suffer from gastric and esophageal mucosal damage. In addition to various adverse signals from the body, gradually emerging psychological disorders can also torment people with eating disorders.

Figure 2 Copyright image, no permission to reprint

Mencius said: "Everyone has a love for beauty." It is human nature to pursue beauty, but we should not go too far in the pursuit. We must correctly understand our body's needs and achieve unity of body and mind; we must learn how to correctly adjust and deal with emotions, reduce or even eliminate the use of eating as a means to fight negative emotions and improve our sense of self-worth; we must also attach importance to family and social mental health education, and show a beautiful shape on the basis of normal body functions. In short, refer to the guidelines and eat well, so that you can have a healthy body and a good life.

References

[1] Xue Minghua, Liu Qiaoli, Mo Dinghua. Analysis of psychological characteristics and psychological care effects of patients with eating disorders[J]. Psychological Monthly, 2022, 17(09): 177-179.