The social media age has got us documenting almost everything we do, including cook, eat, travel; not without editing them and adding some filters though. While all these posts may be getting you more than a dozen likes, a recent study reveals it can lead to some eating disorders.
The study, published in the International Journal Eating Disorders, editing and uploading selfies on social media platforms like Instagram may increase the risk of an eating disorder. The American researchers revealed a consistent and direct link between posting edited photos on Instagram and risk factors for eating disorders. Posting photos contributed to greater anxiety and reinforced urges to restrict food intake and exercise compared with not posting photos.
Co-author Pamela K Keel from Florida State University, said, “As more people turn to social media to stay connected, it's critically important to let others see you as you are. Compared with edited photos, we saw no decrease in the number of likes or comments for unedited photos on Instagram; knowing this could reduce harmful pressures to change how you look.”
The study sought to determine how posting edited photos are connected to eating disorders, as well as anxiety and depression symptoms, in male and female college students. The research team examined concurrent associations between posting edited photos and mental health measures in 2,485 undergraduates in stage I. Meanwhile, in stage II, they examined causal associations between posting edited photos and eating disorder risk factors in 80 undergraduates who endorse posting edited photos in stage I and volunteered for the experimental portion of the study.
The findings showed those who endorsed edited pictures reported greater disordered eating patterns and anxiety than those who did not. However, no differences were found for symptoms of depression.
Types of eating disorders:
Not only posting, one also needs to pay close attention to their eating patterns. Below are some serious, yet extremely subtle eating disorders.
1. Anorexia nervosa
This disorder is characterised by extreme weight loss, difficulty in maintaining appropriate body weight, and even distorted body image in many. People suffering from this conditions could drastically restrict their calorie intake, exercise compulsively, and even try to compensate for eating via forceful vomiting or laxatives.
Such individuals are obsessed with weight, food, calories, fat grams, and dieting. They have a negative body image, and run away from situations involving food and avoid meal time.
They could also exhibit stomach cramps, and other gastrointestinal complaints, fatigue, dizziness, and fainting due to nutritional deficiencies, menstrual irregularities, brittle and thin hair, weak nails, and dry and dull skin cavities.
2. Bulimia nervosa
This disorder is characterised by repeated episodes of binge eating beyond the point of feeling comfortably full, followed by inappropriate behaviour to compensate for the calories gained in binges via self-induced vomiting, misuse of laxatives, fasting, and/or excessive exercise.
They express constant fear of gaining weight, show discomfort while eating around others, heavy reliance on harmful fad diets, which lead to a quick weight loss by eliminating certain food groups completely from the diet, and are harmful in the long run.
Most physical symptoms like dizziness, fatigue, weight fluctuations, menstrual irregularities, gastrointestinal issues, weak immunity, and deteriorating quality of hair, skin, and nails remain the same as that of anorexia nervosa, certain physical changes might be unique to bulimia.
3. Binge eating
This eating disorder also involves episodes of losing control and eating till you get uncomfortably full. However, it is not always followed by unhealthy compensatory measures such as forced vomiting, but is surely followed by guilt, shame, and distress. The physical and behavioural symptoms of the binge eating disorder are more or less similar to bulimia nervosa.
4. Orthorexia
This disorder basically indicates an individual's obsession with proper or “healthful” eating, often resulting in them damaging their own well-being instead. Symptoms including compulsive checking of ingredient lists and nutritional labels on food items, sticking strictly to a narrow food group that is deemed as healthy. Individuals with this disorder also spend too much time in meal planning, obsession with food and health blogs on social media.
