Are eating disorders mainly linked to developed countries? What are equivalents in less developed parts of the world?
My mamaw grew up in Germany during the two World Wars, and she always hid extra food in her bedroom.
My friend adopted American sisters and they do the same. Their bio mother would leave a single box of snack food for five children to share over the course of days.
Yeah...I've seen this with foster/adopted kids. It's not really an eating disorder. Unless they don't eat on purpose to ration
You would see this in European countries with those who survived the world wars. Audrey Hepburn apparently suffered through extreme guilt and shame connected to good, generally attributed to starvation in Holland during WWII
Food insecurity. Yup.
This is a little bit of an oversimplification but, eating disorders are often people using food/hunger to feel control. If food or hunger is something you don’t actually have control over, an eating disorder wouldn’t serve its function.
They occur in every country, but are more prevalent in Western Nations
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/eating-disorders-by-country
Bear in mind that eating disorder diagnoses are made by mental health professionals, and they may simply be undiagnosed or unreported in countries with limited mental health care
There were several widespread famines in the 19th and 20th centuries in India. This created nutritional deficiencies and caused generations of health problems. There are studies that indicate that the genetic makeup was altered due to the severity of famines.
Eating disorders are triggered by any type of restriction or deprivation of access to food or preferred food. They are biopsychosocial illnesses, so there are genetic environmental and psychological components as well. There are lots of stereotypes about eating disorders because for a very long time only privileged white middle and upper middle-class people were able to access access treatment. We now believe that there are likely way more people who have eating disorders due to deprivation because of poverty and marginalization then people have eating disorders due to wanting to be thin.
There was an interesting study done in the late 1990s about the rise of eating disorders after television was introduced in Fiji. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post links here, but I just googled "eating disorders Fiji" and saw quite a few sources.
Eating disorders have increased amongst the middle class even in less developed parts of the world, all the talk is about dieting. Older people don't understand as they lived through hunger.
I imagine in relation to wanting to look a certain way they would be. But there are standards to be larger in other countries too. And often they can start for other reasons, like sexual abuse...and then wanting to "disappear" or be unattractive so it doesn't happen again.
My aunts grew up with lack of food due to poverty. A couple of them were able to move to the USA n got papers for themselves n their kids. A few of my male cousins moved too as adults. They are now morbidly obese. We also grew up with a lack of food but we have a healthy relationship with food, except during depression. My mom says is because whenever she had money, she bought us healthy food and we could eat as we please. My aunts even after they were financially stable, would starve themselves and their kids
Anorexia and bulimia: Pretty much any extreme beauty standard is the equivalent of eating disorders. Foot binding, neck stretching, overeating to obesity for beauty.
Binge eating, sugar addition: equivalent to drug addition and alcohol addiction.
Anyone, living anywhere, can develop and eating disorder.
Purely anecdotal, but my friends two adopted siblings from Vietnam and Guatemala have food issues due to scarcity when they were little. They both borderline hoard food now, they don’t overeat, but must have ample food stored or they panic.