User:Artfisic/Edorexia

Edorexia is an eating disorder that is revealed by excessive food intake. Edo and orexis (which mean "eat" and "appetite" respectively) come to form the expression whose meaning is "eat for appetite", distinguishing functional or "healthy" appetite from dysfunctional or "pathological" appetite.

Edorexia represents the eating, lifestyle and psychological habits that trigger the energy imbalance that obesity causes.

López Morales and Garcés de los Fayos list the factors that produce an energy imbalance as:

• Caloric intake
• Energy expenditure
• Energy homeostasis
• Genetic vulnerability.

This model considers obesity as a body state whose main characteristic is fat accumulation, caused by an energy imbalance between various factors, such as caloric intake and energy expenditure, through the influence of energy homeostasis and genetic vulnerability.

Although this energy imbalance is rarely due to endogenous causes, it can trigger a series of consequences leading to obesity. However, most of the time, obesity results from acquired habits, which will be the main key to maintaining or breaking the balance as mentioned above.

So people's habits represent the last link and are responsible for triggering obesity. However, the body is able to establish strategies that allow the balance to be maintained; metabolic and behavioural modifications are developed to achieve it in the case of excess intake. In addition, the broad aetiology of the alteration in energy homeostasis is known, in which stress, learning and other psychological factors are part of it. Stress and other psychological aspects can alter the regulatory mechanism and can cause metabolic alterations and behavioural (such as excessive food intake).

Edorexia in athletes

Although in most cases, this syndrome is related to obesity. It is necessary to emphasise the relation of the sport with the feeding; Specifically, diet depends on the sport to compensate for caloric intake, and in turn, sport depends on the type of diet to achieve maximum performance.

Therefore, the diet of an athlete is essential. So why do many athletes find it difficult to start an adequate diet? Why do athletes get fat when they stop practising sports? The causes of difficulties to stop eating foods that are not recommended for our physical activity or to stop eating an excessive amount when we no longer perform physical activity is found in Edorexia Syndrome.

Generally, we know how sport causes an energy demand that food supports. However, the body gets used to that amount of food; that is, the body normalises that behaviour, causing a psychological need (dependency).

Although the body does not require an excessive intake because there are no physical needs when not practising sports, the body still has psychological needs. In conclusion, it is an excessive intake according to the "real" demands that the body needs and how they are higher than the energy expenditure. Therefore , there is a lot of possibility of gaining weight. Similarly, it is difficult for us to change eating habits when starting a diet; in the case of athletes, the difficulty of maintaining the sports diet for maximum performance.

Edorexia Syndrome is not only summarised in food addiction; it also includes other factors such as, for example, doing sports for fear of gaining weight. However, if one thing is clear: when eating causes personal, social, work or sports difficulties in a person and they have difficulty changing those habits, we find ourselves with a possible problem, whether or not they are overweight, called Syndrome. Edorexia.

Sources

• López Morales, J.L. y Garcés de los Fayos Ruiz, E.J. (2012). Hacia una integración comprensiva de la obesidad desde una perspectiva multidisciplinar. Nutrición Hospitalaria 27(6):1810-1816.
• López Morales, J.L. y Garcés de los Fayos Ruiz, E.J. (2012). Edorexia y deporte. Una concepción acerca de la obesidad y la adicción a la comida. Cuadernos de Psicología del Deporte 12(1):139-142.
• Investigadores de la UMU descubren un trastorno psicológico de la alimentación derivado del apetito "excesivo"
• Edorexia, un trastorno alimenticio de reciente descubrimiento

External links

• Edorexia.com 

Category:Eating disorders