Recognizing Eating Disorders

Eating disorders can happen when a healthy body image is lacking. Teens are especially susceptible to developing eating disorders. If you think you or a friend may suffer from an eating disorder get professional help.
Do you know about eating disorders? Take our True or False Eating Disorder Quiz to find out.
Worry that you or someone you know may be suffering from an eating disorder? Take our Eating Disorder Assessment Quiz to see if it’s time to get professional help

Healthy Body Guidelines

Healthy Body Guidelines
There are some guidelines that health care professionals have developed to help laypeople understand what a healthy body should be like. The most commonly used methods of defining a healthy body are through height/weight ranges, body mass index level and muscle-to-fat ratio.

The Importance of a Healthy Body Image

It is important for teens to be encouraged to develop healthy attitudes toward their bodies. Teens should be taught that the ideal body is a healthy body.
All body types are beautiful. The only time teens should worry about their body is when it is unhealthy. Teens should be taught that obesity is unhealthy but not ugly. They should be reminded that skinny bodies can be unhealthy too. By focusing more on health and less on looks teens can see their bodies in a whole new light.

Healthy Body Guidelines

Healthy Body Guidelines
There are some guidelines that health care professionals have developed to help laypeople understand what a healthy body should be like. The most commonly used methods of defining a healthy body are through height/weight ranges, body mass index level and muscle-to-fat ratio.

The Importance of a Healthy Body Image

It is important for teens to be encouraged to develop healthy attitudes toward their bodies. Teens should be taught that the ideal body is a healthy body.
All body types are beautiful. The only time teens should worry about their body is when it is unhealthy. Teens should be taught that obesity is unhealthy but not ugly. They should be reminded that skinny bodies can be unhealthy too. By focusing more on health and less on looks teens can see their bodies in a whole new light.

What Is Healthy Body

Bodies come in all shapes and sizes but for teens the pressure to conform to a highly idealized body type can be overwhelming. Everywhere teens turn they are met with body size expectations that are not only unrealistic but often unhealthy. It’s time for a reality check.
Some people are tall, some are short, some people have curvy figures, others are straight and angular, and some people are naturally thin while others are genetically programmed to hold on to fat. So just what is normal?
What Is a Normal Body?

Add Fish and Omega-3 Fatty Acids to Your Diet

Healthy Habit No. 2: Add Fish and Omega-3 Fatty Acids to Your Diet




Fatty fish such as mackerel, lake trout, herring, sardines, albacore tuna, and salmon, are rich in two kinds of omega-3 fatty acids: eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).
Foods such as tofu, soybeans, canola, walnuts, flax seed, and their oils contain alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), which convert to omega-3 in the body. Even though the benefits of ALA are controversial, the AHA still recommends foods containing it as part of a healthy diet.
In addition to their heart-health benefits, there is some evidence that omega-3 fatty acids may also soothe an overactive immune system, says Johnson. Even though this benefit is still being studied, she says there appears to be a link between getting more omega-3s in your diet and reducing allergies, asthma, eczema, and autoimmune disorders.

Eat Breakfast Every Morning

Healthy Habit No. 1: Eat Breakfast Every Morning

Breakfast eaters are champions of good health. Research shows people who have a morning meal tend to take in more vitamins and minerals, and less fat and cholesterol. The result is often a leaner body, lower cholesterol count, and less chance of overeating.
"That one act [of eating breakfast] seems to make a difference in people's overall weight," says Melinda Johnson, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association (ADA). She says breakfast can hold off hunger pangs until lunchtime and make high-calorie vending machine options less enticing.
Not only that, researchers at the 2003 American Heart Association conference reported that breakfast eaters are significantly less likely to be obese and get diabetes compared with nonbreakfast eaters.
Another study in the International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition showed that people who consumed breakfast cereal every day reported feeling better both physically and mentally than those who rarely ate cereal in the morning.
For kids, breakfast appears to enhance alertness, attention, and performance on standardized achievement tests, reports the ADA.
To get the full benefits of breakfast, the Mayo Clinic recommends a meal with carbohydrates, protein, and a small amount of fat. They say that because no single food gives you all of the nutrients you need, eating a variety of foods is essential to good health.
Yet, even with so much scientific support that breakfast does the body good; many people still make excuses not to eat in the morning. They include not having enough time and not feeling hungry. For these people, Johnson suggests tailoring breakfast to the day.
"When I'm getting ready in the morning, I don't really want to take the time to eat breakfast because that would mean sacrificing sleep," says Johnson. "So I bring my breakfast with me, and I know I have an hour when I'm reading emails in the office when I can eat it. By that time, I'm hungry because I've been up for almost a couple of hours."

NEVER Binge Eat

NEVER Binge Eat -

DO NOT substitute eating for anything else.
Take Nutritional Supplements - Find a good supplier of Nutritional supplements. There are some great tasting liquid drinks available on the market today that provide a good amount of nutrition.

Balancing

Balance, along with flexibility, is something that we lose with age. Practice this a little bit every day and you’ll be less likely to lose it. Yoga, again, is another great way to build and maintain balance. There are several yoga poses you could use to increase balance. Try one each day. A simple one you can do is to stand on one leg and grab the foot of the other leg to stretch the hamstring in the front of the thigh. As you build your balance over time try to touch your toes with your other hand while maintaining balance. It is helpful to keep your eyes focused on one point. Do this for 15-60 seconds on each leg.

Stretching

Stretching.

An important age marker is your level of flexibility. Yoga is a terrific way to keep your body flexible. If you don’t have time for a full yoga session, try to make sure you do 5 minutes of stretching each day after your aerobic exercise. To ensure you get most areas of your body, try a sun salutation, some seated twists, and a hip opener.