“No starches in the evening, otherwise I will get fat”. “If I have a dessert, tomorrow I eat light”. When you lack self-confidence, whether you find yourself too plump or not enough, you begin to scrutinize the contents of your plate, and develop an upset relationship with your body and food. A vulnerability that can switch to eating disorders (TCA).
And with the approach of summer, the front pages of magazines devoted to the summer body and the influencers touting diet products or extreme sporting challenges are putting a coin in the machine. “In a context where, during the Covid-19 pandemic, eating disorders have affected more and more people, especially among young people”, insists Dr. Camille Ringot, psychiatrist specialist in eating disorders, and author of the trial. Fasting, diets, slimming, The great manipulation * (ed. Larousse). She responds to 20 minutes on the occasion of the National ATT Awareness Day.
As a preamble, can you tell us about the TCA in figures? And what are the triggers?
They include three main entities: anorexia nervosa, bulimia or binge eating disorder. EDs are very common serious psychiatric illnesses: in France alone, nearly a million people are affected. According to French Federation of Anorexia Bulimia (FFAB), 17% of the population, all ages and genders combined, are at risk or suffer from an ED. And these multifactorial disorders affect women more than men.
Some people will have vulnerability factors: bodily concerns, bodily dissatisfaction, reinforced by the internalization of the ideal of thinness conveyed by society, all these injunctions which condition us to idealize thin and muscular bodies, people “healthy”. This can lead to the development of a food intake disorder that will turn into a TCA.
Is the summer body season and its share of injunctions likely to favor or aggravate eating disorders?
Frequently, a triggering factor will be the establishment of a diet. And all these injunctions to prepare a slim and toned body, if you have a vulnerability factor, you risk developing an ED.
I alert my patients to make them take a step back. It’s good to take care of your body and your diet. But in no case to undertake a diet to lose weight quickly, entering a hypercontrol. This is not the solution to lose weight permanently in case of overweight or obesity.
A study of thehandles demonstrates the deleterious effects of all popular diets, with a risk of developing eating disorders, and, one year after the diet, weight regain in 80% of cases.
Women are more affected by eating disorders. Is there a gender relationship to food?
The relationship to our image and our diet – and therefore our risk of developing an ED – is influenced by our beliefs, which are themselves conditioned by the messages conveyed about appearance. It’s a fact: slimming injunctions target women more, who will be more concerned about compensating for a richer meal, will have thoughts that lead them to exacerbated control of their diet. This is humorously illustrated by a post from influencer@MyBetterSelf.
It is important to learn to eat simply, knowing how to have fun while taking care of your body.
Today, the trend is “body positive”, but magazines and social networks continue to boast of slim and retouched bodies. How to detox?
It’s very hard, because idealized bodies also respond to a notion of marketing, and therefore of money. Many media alternate between plebiscite of bodily diversity and the ideal of thinness. It is by being aware of this phenomenon that we will be able to sort it out. Studies show that it is the frequency of exposure to this type of so-called “perfect” body image that will lead to growing body dissatisfaction, and therefore to eating disorders.
It is not a question of excluding them from its field of vision, but of including more diversity, of showing all morphologies. And to get rid of the retouching and filters of which the media and social networks are still prisoners.
But how to achieve this when everyone scrolls for hours on social networks?
The algorithm is designed to show us the same type of content: if we look at people with retouched bodies, influencers who only talk about diets, we will see more and more of them. If we want to get rid of it, we can act by blocking certain accounts, certain hashtags, and access content that suits us better, on things that do us good. But that doesn’t happen overnight.
There are also more and more accounts that offer content that brings well-being. I launched the Instagram account@doc.tca during confinement, because I received a lot of messages from patients affected by all this content. I wanted to create an account, then write a book, to allow people to take a step back and better orient themselves towards appropriate care. I base myself on scientific data and my clinical practice, and I associate recipes with them, with the idea of being able to restore the pleasure of eating and cooking, without intellectualizing the meals.
How to get out of TCA?
First of all, don’t be ashamed to talk about it, if necessary call the “Anorexia Bulimia Info Listening” hotline **. Freedom of speech, which this year is the theme of this National Day, is decisive.
In addition, it is recommended to set up multidisciplinary, early and adapted care, with a psychiatrist specializing in eating disorders, a nutritionist dietician and his general practitioner. We are talking about psychiatric illnesses that affect the body to the point, in some cases, of being life-threatening. Anorexia is the psychiatric illness with the highest mortality rate: one person in ten dies from it. There are also physical complications associated with bulimia and binge eating.
* Fasting, diets, slimming, The great manipulationby Dr Camille Ringot, Editions Larousse, 18.95 euros, in bookstores since May 24.
** “Anorexia Bulimia Info Listening” hotline: 09 69 32 59 00. Non-surcharged number.