Anorexia is a medical term for a loss of appetite. While the term outside of the scientific literature is often used interchangeably with anorexia nervosa, many possible causes exist for a loss of appetite, some of which may be harmless, while others indicate a serious clinical condition or pose a significant risk.
Bulimia nervosa, also known as simply bulimia, is an eating disorder characterized by binge eating followed by purging or fasting, and excessive concern with body shape and weight. This activity aims to expel the body of calories eaten from the binging phase of the process. Binge eating refers to eating a large amount of food in a short amount of time. Purging refers to the attempts to get rid of the food consumed. This may be done by vomiting or taking laxatives.
Eating is the ingestion of food. In biology, this is typically done to provide a heterotrophic organism with energy and nutrients and to allow for growth. Animals and other heterotrophs must eat in order to survive — carnivores eat other animals, herbivores eat plants, omnivores consume a mixture of both plant and animal matter, and detritivores eat detritus. Fungi digest organic matter outside their bodies as opposed to animals that digest their food inside their bodies.
Orthorexia nervosa is a proposed eating disorder characterized by an excessive preoccupation with eating healthy food. The term was introduced in 1997 by American physician Steven Bratman, who suggested that some people's dietary restrictions intended to promote health may paradoxically lead to unhealthy consequences, such as social isolation, anxiety, loss of ability to eat in a natural, intuitive manner, reduced interest in the full range of other healthy human activities, and, in rare cases, severe malnutrition or even death.
Appetite is the desire to eat food items, usually due to hunger. Appealing foods can stimulate appetite even when hunger is absent, although appetite can be greatly reduced by satiety. Appetite exists in all higher life-forms, and serves to regulate adequate energy intake to maintain metabolic needs. It is regulated by a close interplay between the digestive tract, adipose tissue and the brain. Appetite has a relationship with every individual's behavior. Appetitive behaviour also known as approach behaviour, and consummatory behaviour, are the only processes that involve energy intake, whereas all other behaviours affect the release of energy. When stressed, appetite levels may increase and result in an increase of food intake. Decreased desire to eat is termed anorexia, while polyphagia is increased eating. Dysregulation of appetite contributes to ARFID, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, cachexia, overeating, and binge eating disorder.
Promotion of anorexia is the promotion of behaviors related to the eating disorder anorexia nervosa. It is often referred to simply as pro-ana or ana. The lesser-used term pro-mia refers likewise to bulimia nervosa and is sometimes used interchangeably with pro-ana. Pro-ana groups differ widely in their stances. Most claim that they exist mainly as a non-judgmental environment for anorexics; a place to turn to, to discuss their illness, and to support those who choose to enter recovery. Others deny anorexia nervosa is a mental illness and claim instead that it is a lifestyle choice that should be respected by doctors and family.
Binge eating is a pattern of disordered eating which consists of episodes of uncontrollable eating. It is a common symptom of eating disorders such as binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa. During such binges, a person rapidly consumes an excessive quantity of food. A diagnosis of binge eating is associated with feelings of loss of control. Binge eating disorder is also linked with being overweight and obesity.
Emetophobia is a phobia that causes overwhelming, intense anxiety pertaining to vomit. This specific phobia can also include subcategories of what causes the anxiety, including a fear of vomiting or seeing others vomit. Emetophobes might also avoid the mentions of "barfing", vomiting, "throwing up", or "puking."
In nutrition, diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. The word diet often implies the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management reasons. Although humans are omnivores, each culture and each person holds some food preferences or some food taboos. This may be due to personal tastes or ethical reasons. Individual dietary choices may be more or less healthy.
Tracey Gold is an American actress and former child star known for playing Carol Seaver on the 1980s sitcom Growing Pains.
Gillian McKeith is a Scottish television personality and writer. She is known for her promotion of various pseudoscientific ideas about health and nutrition. She is the former host of Channel 4's You Are What You Eat (2004–2006), Granada Television's Dr Gillian McKeith's Feel Fab Forever (2009–2010), and W Network's Eat Yourself Sexy (2010). In 2008, McKeith regularly appeared on the E4 health show Supersize vs Superskinny, and in 2010, she was a contestant on the tenth series of the ITV show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!
An underweight person is a person whose body weight is considered too low to be healthy. A person who is underweight is malnourished.
Sociology of the body is a branch of sociology studying the representations and social uses of the human body in modern societies.
Some claim that the history of anorexia nervosa begins with descriptions of religious fasting dating from the Hellenistic era and continuing into the medieval period. A number of well known historical figures, including Catherine of Siena and Mary, Queen of Scots are believed to have suffered from the condition. Others link the emergence of anorexia to the distinctive presence of an extreme fear of being overweight despite being underweight which emerged in the second half of the 19th century and was first observed by Jean Martin Charcot and other French psychiatrists at the Salpetrière
Wannarexia, or anorexic yearning, is a label applied to someone who claims to have anorexia nervosa, or wishes they did, but does not. These individuals are also called wannarexic, "wanna-be ana" or "anorexic wannabe". The neologism wannarexia is a portmanteau of the latter two terms. It may be used as a pejorative term.
Isabelle Caro Rosenbohm was a French model and actress from Marseille, France, who became well known after appearing in a controversial advertising campaign "No Anorexia" which showed Caro with vertebrae and facial bones showing under her skin in a picture by photographer Oliviero Toscani.
Being overweight is having more body fat than is optimally healthy. Being overweight is especially common where food supplies are plentiful and lifestyles are sedentary.
Anorexia nervosa (AN), often referred to simply as anorexia, is an eating disorder characterized by food restriction, body image disturbance, fear of gaining weight, and an overpowering desire to be thin.
Summer's Dream is a preteen/teen novel published in 2012 by Cathy Cassidy.
Atypical anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder in which individuals meet all the qualifications for anorexia nervosa, including a body image disturbance and a history of restrictive eating and weight loss, except that they are not currently underweight. Atypical anorexia qualifies as a mental health disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), under the category Other Specified Feeding and Eating Disorders (OSFED). The characteristics of people with atypical anorexia generally do not differ significantly from anorexia nervosa patients except for their current weight.
