Nutrition Counseling: From Eating Disorders To Dietary Habits

Basic health is vital in maintaining a content mind, and a large part of a person's basic health is decided by their dietary habits. What, how much, and how often each person eats can factor in their behavior, moods, and thought processes.

Of course, the reality of your dietary situation is more complicated; your mental health can also play a role in the decisions you make regarding your diet. This can become a vicious cycle of mental health challenges that cause physical health issues that can loop back into deteriorating mental health.

If someone is experiencing an eating disorder or unhealthy dietary habit, nutrition counseling should be considered.

How Can Eating Habits Affect The Brain And Vice Versa?

It was also said by Amanda Leigh Mascarelli in her article "Eating Disorders: The Brain's Foul Trickery", that neurotransmitters (messengers that transmit signals around the brain) play a significant role in stress, moods, and appetite. If some of these neurotransmitters are not being produced enough or are unbalanced, then the brain begins lying about the perception of your appearance.

There is also an increasing body of understanding related to how social pressures from peers and media – especially social media – can lead to unhealthy eating habits, especially in young people. According to one 2019 review of existing research, social media was found to increase habits of comparison between users and encourage negative perceptions of users’ own bodies, which may contribute to unhealthy eating habits. 

Unhealthy eating habits may start in the brain, but they don’t end there. When a person isn't eating as they should be, their body can lack key nutrients. Many of these nutrients are important for maintaining mental and emotional health. For example, we often think of calcium as being important for bone health. Bones are the last place in your body that calcium is used. It's a very important ion for the conduction of nerve impulses so people that don't get enough can have some serious symptoms.

Similarly, we think of proteins as being things that build muscle. While this is true, proteins are also broken down into amino acids that are used to construct chemical messengers in the body. Fats, the bane of many under-informed dieters, are also required for the storage or production of some chemical messengers in the body. Fat and water are also required as the stage for various chemical processes.

Other Potential Complications From Unhealthy Eating Habits

Unhealthy eating habits and eating disorders can lead to emotional distress and negative body image which may result in "yo-yo dieting" -- a cycle of severe dieting followed by rapid weight gain. This cycle can be hazardous to both physical and emotional health. Physically, yo-yo diets can cause severe changes in metabolism and difficulty absorbing key nutrients. It can also, in rare cases, lead to issues with bone strength or intestinal blockages. 

There are also some eating disorders, such as Pica, an eating disorder in which people compulsively eat inedible things such as hair. While Pica is different for everyone and many things that we don't usually eat are safe to eat, some of them can be dangerous in ways that most people aren't familiar with. For example, some people with Pica feel compelled to ingest metal. Some metals, such as iron or zinc, are in some foods and are necessary for the body to function properly. However, many metals, such as lead, are very bad for the body. Metals are also difficult for the body to remove so ingesting small amounts over a prolonged period can be more damaging than is the case with other dangerous chemicals like alcohol or even nicotine, which move through the body comparatively much faster.

Online Therapy For Improved Dietary Habits

Nutrition counseling is professional counseling from a dietician and/or mental health specialist to assess and address dietary habits and promote healthy eating on an individual level – essentially letting you know how to listen to your body and give it the food it needs. Generally, this begins with a recording of one's food intake in a certain amount of time. The most common and more concise method is recording what one has eaten over two weekdays and one weekend day.

Your physical condition, including body weight, may also be assessed. This has traditionally been done using weight-for-height tables and body mass index (BMI) to determine whether someone is “underweight” or “overweight” in relation to their height. These metrics are largely falling out of favor, however, as neither takes muscle mass, genetic predispositions, medical conditions, or variations from physical sex and ethnicity into account. Healthcare providers may use other methods to measure body fat content independent from weight, among other factors.

After this, therapists such as the ones at BetterHelp will speak you and work with you to promote gradual improvement, help set up realistic goals, and maintain results. In most cases, talking to a licensed therapist will help to deal with the social, mental, and emotional causes of eating disorders that are not usually as well addressed during nutrition counseling. 

Cognitive behavioral techniques may be used to change negative thinking patterns to improve self-esteem related to body image. Research has found that online treatments for eating disorders and other unhealthy eating patterns are generally effective and can show a significant reduction in symptoms over the course of treatment.

That does not mean, however, that this kind of therapy is a replacement for nutrition counseling. The two services should be seen as complementary to one another and offering related and interconnected services rather than one being a replacement for the other.

It is important that therapists keep an open mind to a person's religious beliefs, preferences, and dietary requirements when arranging and encouraging regular meal schedules. If these are disregarded, the trust between a patient and a therapist is weakened, and therefore, the patient is more likely to stick with their original and damaging eating habits.

During these sessions, addressing any issues related to anxiety after eating can also assist clients in identifying potential triggers so they can implement appropriate dietary adjustments to try and help alleviate their symptoms.