We are glad that you have found us and are ready to help yourself or a loved one struggling with an Eating Disorder. It is hard to ask for help, but it is harder to live with an Eating Disorder. NutriFormance takes great care to respect our clients and their confidentiality. We recognize that this is a very difficult illness and believe in a professional multi-disciplinary approach. NutriFormance’s Registered Dietitians work with area Therapists, Psychiatrists, and Physicians to tend to your individual needs.
What is an Eating Disorder?
Anorexia Nervosa is a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by self-starvation and excessive weight loss.
Anorexia Nervosa has four primary symptoms:
- Resistance to maintaining body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height
- Intense fear of weight gain or being ?fat? even though underweight.
- Disturbance in the experience of body weight or shape, undue influence of weight or shape on self-evaluation, or denial of the seriousness of low body weight.
- Loss of menstrual periods in girls and women post-puberty.
Bulimia Nervosa is a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by a cycle of bingeing and compensatory behaviors such as self-induced vomiting designed to undo or compensate for the effects of binge eating.
Bulimia Nervosa has three primary symptoms:
- Regular intake of large amounts of food accompanied by a sense of loss of control over eating behavior.
- Regular use of inappropriate compensatory behaviors such as self-induced vomiting, laxative or diuretic abuse, fasting, and/or obsessive or compulsive exercise.
- Extreme concern with body weight and shape.
Binge Eating Disorder (BED) is a type of eating disorder not otherwise specified and is characterized by recurrent binge eating without the regular use of compensatory measures to counter the binge eating.
Binge Eating Disorder is characterized by:
- Frequent episodes of eating large quantities of food in short periods of time.
- Feeling out of control over eating behavior.
- Feeling ashamed or disgusted by the behavior.
- There are also several behavioral indicators of BED including eating when not hungry and eating in secret.
Eating Disorders Not Otherwise specified (EDNOS) is comprise of a an individual that has partial symptoms of either Anorexia Nervosa or Bulimia Nervosa, but does not meet the full criteria. If left untreated individuals with EDNOS may develop the full criteria.
Disordered Eating is a term that is used to describe a wide variety of irregularities in eating behavior that do not warrant a diagnosis of a specific eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa.
Body Image is how you see yourself when you look in the mirror or picture yourself in your mind.
Who should contact us?
- An individual with a diagnosis of Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, or Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified, or Binge Eating Disorder. (We may recommend a higher level of care if needed.)
- An individual concerned that they are having eating problems but do not have a diagnosis
- An individual that has a previous history of an Eating Disorder and is having an increase of stress in their life.
- An individual who is an athlete having difficulty coping with the stress demands of their competitive sport.
- An individual who has been a chronic dieter or emotional eater.
- An individual who spends about 90% of their time thinking about food or their body image.
- An individual who has a fear of foods. For example: Fear of eating carbohydrates, fat, dairy, etc.
- An individual who has become a recent vegetarian and you are concerned they are not doing it for the right reasons
- An individual who is fearful of going out to dinner because they are not aware of how the food was prepared.
