Is it an eating disorder?

This is a list to help you identify an eating disorder in your self or a loved one. It is not exhaustive. If you identify with any of these signs, we recommend a professional consultation.

*Identifying eating disorders can be complicated because often the affected person does not know they have a problem. This is also known as Anosognosia and is caused by changes in the brain during the illness.

Signs around Food

• Eating habits have become more regimented. Eating at certain times of the day, only use certain plates and cutlery, and insist on eating food in a certain order
• Dramatically under or over eating
• Fixation on food and counting calories
• Wanting to eat in private
• Weighing themselves frequently
• Not eating all day then binging at night
• Making themselves throw up
• Wearing bagging clothes to hide body
• Starting to move food around the plate a lot, or chopping it up into tiny pieces or certain shapes before eating it
• Using a lot more condiments (such as sauces) or seasoning (such as salt and pepper) on food more than usual
• Becoming fidgety and anxious during mealtimes
• Eating the same foods over and over again
• Starting a new diet e.g. becoming vegetarian, vegan, clean eating or going gluten-free
• Obsessively using performance enhancing supplements
• Becoming interested in cooking but not eating the food
• Long list of foods that “can’t” be eaten
• Ritualistic or secretive eating
• Spending longer time then normal in the bathroom or in the shower especially after eating
• Stomach pain and gastrointestinal upset
• Eaing only foods that “bulk” the person up while neglecting other food groups