Early indications that may lead to a full blown eating disorder

In order to prevent eating disorders, we must know their symptoms. There are early warning signs, side effects and indications that a loved one is on the slippery road to anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder or EDNOS (Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified).

Below is a list of the most common warning signs that may lead to a full blown eating disorder.

Eating Disorder Warning Signs

- An impulsive focus on healthy food and nutrition

- A sudden interest in reading food labels to check fat grams and calories

- Avoiding fat and becoming increasingly picky about what he/she chooses to eat

- Starting diets to lose weight or become “healthier”

- An unexpected choice to be a vegetarian

- Refusing to eat dessert

- Skipping meals (most often breakfast)

- Lying about the foods they’ve eaten when they’ve eaten and how much they’ve eaten

- Worrying about their weight and being dissatisfied with how they look

- Drinking excessive amounts of water or liquid that have no calories (in order to feel full)

- Poor concentration

Warning Signs Specific to Anorexia

- Significant weight loss

- A denial of how much weight they’ve lost or how thin they’ve become

- Being cold all the time (sometimes a need to wear layers of clothing to stay warm and disguise their thinning body)

- Extensive hair loss (can be seen on pillows, in the shower and in hair brushes)

- Fine hair growing on body and face (called Lanugo), which is protecting the body

- Dizziness and fainting

- A desire to cook for others but not eat any of it

- A yellow-ish skin tone from poor liver function

Warning Signs Specific to Bulimia

- Having constant stomach problems (ie. flues, aches and pains, poor digestion, heartburn)

- Complaining of a sore throat, hoarseness and trouble swallowing

- A sudden sensitivity to all sort of foods

- Swollen cheeks and a puffy face from purging

- A stash of laxatives, diuretics, diet pills or even poison

- Bloodshot eyes and/or red spots around the eyes from self-induced vomiting

- A redness around the mouth and on the back of the hands from purging

- A dental report with a high number of cavities when they were relatively healthy before

- Weight fluctuation from binging and starving

Warning Signs Specific to Binge Eating Disorder

- Usually on a dieting roller coaster or chronically dieting

- Episodes of out of control eating when the person wants to stop but can’t

- Stealing food from grocery stores or emptying the household cupboards

- Eating in secret to avoid the shame of not being able to stop

- Eating even when not hungry

- Emotional eating when angry, upset, frustrated, overwhelmed or sad

- Eating rapidly without tasting or experiencing the food

- After eating, feeling overly stuffed instead of comfortably full

- Not knowing when to stop eating, nor being able to