Eating Disorders and Disordered Eating
Our relationship with food can be complex. This can stem from habits built in childhood, from long-term dieting, receiving advice not tailored to your needs, and body image concerns just to name a few.
What is the difference between eating disorders and disordered eating?
Eating Disorders are clinical conditions like anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. They involve severe disturbances in eating behaviors and body image.
Disordered Eating refers to irregular eating patterns that don’t necessarily meet the criteria for a clinical eating disorder but may still include behaviours like restrictive dieting, frequent overeating, or emotional eating that can negatively affect health and well-being.
Dietitians play a vital role in helping individuals with eating disorders and disordered eating by providing specialized guidance that addresses both the physical and psychological aspects of these conditions. Both often require multidisciplinary care, including medical, psychological, and nutritional support.
How our dietitians help with eating disorders and disordered eating:
- Most importantly we offer non-judgmental Support. No matter where you are at on your journey, whether we are your first point of contact or you are years down the tack, we know you can feel overwhelmed and judged. We practise with empathy, patience, and understanding. Our goal is to create a safe space for you to share your challenges and emotions around food.
- We will teach you about mindful eating. This includes helping learn practices that allow you to slow down, savour your food, and recognise hunger and fullness cues, which can reduce binge or restrictive behaviours.
- We will help you re-establish regular, balanced eating patterns. For those with restrictive eating disorders, this may involve slowly increasing food intake in a safe and supportive manner. For individuals with binge eating or overeating behaviors, the goal is to help establish more structured, mindful eating habits.
- We believe everyone deserves to have a healthy relationship with food: A major part of eating disorder and disordered eating recovery involves rebuilding trust with food.
- We encourage sustainable lifestyle changes rather than focusing on temporary dieting or weight loss.
- We will work alongside therapists, psychologists, and other healthcare professionals in your team to create a comprehensive care plan. Eating disorder and disordered eating recovery need a team, we cannot do it alone, and nor should you have to.
ARE YOU FEELING…?
