A Deeper Look into Eating Disorders in Athletes

TW: Some content may not be suitable for some readers.

Abstract

We are human, and what is one basic thing that we humans need to survive? Food. Our lives revolve around food, such as going out to meals with friends and making weekly trips to the grocery store. These are the ways that our mind thinks about food and about eating in general; it is a simple and basic human function. However, not everyone’s mind works the same way as others.

Some people have an eating disorder, which are classified as mental illnesses. What exactly is an eating disorder? First you must know that there are multiple types of eating disorders – anorexia nervosa: restricting food and starving oneself, bulimia nervosa: eating all at once in a sitting, then proceeding to purge afterwards, binge eating disorder: the inability to stop consuming large amounts of food at a time, and many more. An eating disorder is a series of abnormal eating habits due to a psychological issue in the brain of an individual. Although no eating disorder specifically looks similar, they all have one thing in common: a psychological disorder.

I chose to write this research analysis on the topic of eating disorders being present in athletes specifically because being a dancer, I felt it was very important to bring up a discussion for something that does not get talked about as often as it should, which is why I instantly felt drawn into talking about such a sensitive topic. I also wanted to spread more awareness on eating disorders in better attempts to educate more and more people on a disorder that can be very dangerous and a disorder that affects over a million people in our world today. No eating disorder is the same, so the topic of disordered eating makes for a variety of different discussions.

What are Common Behaviors that Lead to Disordered Eating in Athletes?

As I first started looking into this topic specifically, I was curious as to why disordered eating starts in the first place within different sports communities – keep in mind that research from The National Eating Disorders Association shows that “33% of athletes are more prone to developing an eating disorder with their sport” (Stuart Koman, PhD). I took a dive further into this finding to understand why eating disorders are more prevalent in athletes versus any other group of people. I found a reliable source written by Dana K. Volker, ‘Disordered Eating in Athletes: Understanding the Basics and What We Can Do About It | Association for Applied Sport Psychology’ that discusses all of the different varied ways that athletes in different sports communities are introduced into disordered eating and how some develop habits that lead to eating disorders.

These sources explained more in depth about the different symptoms that athletes can experience of disordered eating – physical symptoms: weight fluctuation and fatigue, emotional and psychological symptoms: the fear of gaining weight and personal body shaming, and behavioral symptoms: restrictive dieting or over exercising. The main topic in question in this source is, “how and why does disordered eating occur amongst athletes more so than anyone else?” To provide an efficient answer to this, Volker explains that disordered eating among athletes is a very complex phenomenon that can be influenced by a number of things, one of which being environmental surroundings such as peer modeling. Volker went on to say that she believes the pressure coming from these environments plays a key part in pushing athletes towards disordered eating behaviors and lifestyles, which has shown to be more common in sports communities than in normal daily life. Volker’s statement made some very important points of discussion that provided a more in depth understanding of how eating disorders happen from an athlete’s perspective:

Of crucial and immediate concern to sport stakeholders, research shows that pressures from the sports environment to change or maintain body weight, shape, size, or appearance may incite, or exacerbate, disordered eating. Disordered eating encompasses a range of problematic eating attitudes and behaviors that adversely impact health and performance. Scientific and anecdotal evidence indicates disordered eating can affect any athlete in any type of sport, any sport (Dana K. Volker).

There is known to be a great toxicity surrounding body image when you're an athlete and involved in elite-level sports, implying that you must “look a certain way i.e., be very skinny and thin” to perform to the best of your ability; we are able to see this more commonly within a lot of the dancing community, and more strictly within ballet.

Since no eating disorder is the same, it can be hard to recognize at times that one is struggling with harmful eating habits. There can be a point where even the athlete themselves is not even aware of what is going on with them, both physically and psychologically, to which their issues continue to negatively progress and impact themselves as well as the things surrounding them. This brings me to my next point of discussion.

The Awareness of Disordered Eating Habits Amongst Athletes

There are plenty of contrasting situations where an individual is completely oblivious of their eating habits and that they are even harmful at all, to where there are situations where the individual is aware of their habits – the situation tends to vary.

One source, an athletics health website called TrueSport, of information introduces the many signs and symptoms of disordered eating in many athletes. The purpose of disclosing this information is to help educate parents of athletes as well as coaches of disordered eating habits and how to provide help to those who need it. TrueSport dives deeper into how eating disorders can look in an athlete. They go further by saying that many athletes will see different influences in their eating habits and continue on to those harmful habits. The source also explains that even though some athletes are fully aware of their behaviors, they are not able to find a way out of them. TrueSport identifies some of the major contributors to an athlete developing an eating disorder as the words from their coaches and their experiences from things like social media on the daily.

With social media influencers and professional athletes constantly sharing their ‘highlight reel’ and talking about what and how they eat, it’s important to remember that most athletes aren’t nutrition professionals and make sure that your athletes understand that what they see on social media shouldn’t be read as professional advice (TrueSport).

“For some athletes, the slightest negative comment around eating or weight can trigger disordered eating habits. While a parent or coach may not notice that an athlete is starting to show signs of disordered eating, opening lines of communication between a coach, parent, and athlete is crucial when it comes to the topic of disordered eating.” This quote directs me to mention the fact that many athletes have found themselves in the unfortunate situation of receiving certain comments from past athletic coaches and teachers that have made them look down on their self-image. While many athletes still struggle sometimes with restrictive eating habits, especially when the disordered habits are in a very bad spot, they usually never turn to anyone for help.

Eating disorders are incredibly diverse, but just exactly how diverse are they? Not just within different sports communities, but in other social groups as well?

The Diversity of Eating Disorders of Individuals in Sports Communities

Absolutely anyone can develop an eating disorder, at any age and any time in their life; there is no “timeline” for disordered eating and harmful eating habits. A source that I found from University of North Carolina’s Campus Health website lists different topics for diversity within eating disorders, including age, culture, race, ethnicity, and LGBTQ+ communities.

The source starts out by stating that eating disorder rates are all very similar along the different races and ethnicities. However there was the one exception where “anorexia nervosa is more of an occurrence within the white communities more so than in the Asian, black, or Hispanic communities'' (Campus Health, UNC). They move along to eating disorders in the LGBTQ+ communities; a couple of the facts state that there are more gay men to be suffering from an eating disorder than there are straight men. Another common theme that the LGBTQ+ communities see is members are more likely to develop eating disorders than anyone else. Finally, looking into eating disorders with age, UNC Campus Health mentions that age has been more and more of a narrowing factor, meaning that eating disorders in the LGBTQ+ community are proving to be more common in those within the age groups of around 13-24 years old.

One thing that UNC Campus Health made into a repetitive thing to repeat over in this source is “eating disorders do not discriminate.” They have also provided us with some interesting facts about the diversity in eating disorders - eating disorders in gender and age and eating disorders in different sexual orientations.

More women of diverse ages are admitting that they struggle with body image & disordered eating. Women who identify as lesbian report to having higher levels of self-esteem regarding their body & sexual attractiveness. They also have a decreased tendency to adopt cultural standards for physical appearance. *There is a misconception when discussing eating disorders in relation to gender that ED’s are more prevalent in only women – this is simply not true. While it is proven to be true through studies and research that women are more prone (see ‘Gender Differences in Eating Disorder Risk Among NCAA Division | Cross Country and Track Student-Athletes),

"A 2013 study with elite adolescent athletes showed that 14% of females compared to 3% of males identified with an eating disorder."

This does not evade from saying that males as well as gender non-conforming individuals cannot also identify with an eating disorder, because they most certainly can.

Is Body Image and Self-Esteem a Larger Issue in Athletes?

Often enough, Experts have found that many eating disorders aren’t just about a toxic relationship with food; I found a great source that goes further into explaining that eating disorders are often not just about food, but a combination of so many different things; physically, behaviorally, and psychologically.

This source that I found was published by Kristen Fuller, M.D, a clinical writer who works with Psychology Today. In this source, Fuller mostly discusses the psychology of eating disorders and the different triggers that cause them. Fuller starts out by talking about how most people in our society today adapt different strict diets which can lead to the harmful eating habits that we know to be symptoms of an eating disorder. The author continues on to say that we have become obsessive over our body image and that it takes us coming to a realization that we actually have a problem to then seek help. Fuller switches gears by asking a question, “If food doesn’t necessarily cause eating disorders, then what does?”

She goes into the psychology of disordered eating by showing how different experiences, such as trauma, can contribute to those habits. She discusses how the individual's eating habits is something that they are able to control, which differs from them not being able to control their past trauma, which is what brings them to the development of an eating disorder. Fuller finishes up with discussing different treatments, including recognizing certain triggers and different behavioral changes and fluctuations.

Fuller made many excellent points in her writing, specifically addressing some of the more common psychological aspects in eating disorders in athletes:

The individual [athlete] tries to gain a sense of self-control through food and exercise since this is the one and only aspect of their life they are able to control. Maternal psychopathology such as negative expressed emotion, the thrive for perfectionism, and maternal encouragement of weight loss can lead to the development of eating disorders in children and teenagers (Kristen Fuller).

“Although each of these disorders may differ in their signs, symptoms, and presentations, they all have one thing in common: similar underlying triggers.”

Concluding Statement

We have covered a variety of topics relating to eating disorders in sports; We’ve covered diversity, how eating disorders are not limited to certain groups of individuals. We’ve looked into the psychology of eating disorders and applied that to what we already know of the facts in front of us. We have discussed multiple different sides and different perspectives of eating disorders in athletes. After covering a variety of points, I will leave you now with a thought:

Are there ways for athletes and other individuals to prevent developing an eating disorder? Absolutely.

No one is or should be alone if they are struggling with themselves with their disorder and in their practice, and I hope that you can take away important information and facts from this research analysis so that many more people can be educated on this topic.

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Sources Cited

Dana K. Voelker, ‘Disordered Eating in Athletes: Understanding the Basics and What We Can Do About It | Association for Applied Sport Psychology’ (July 31, 2014)

Campus Health, Diversity in Eating Disorders.” Diversity in Eating Disorders | campushealth.unc.edu/health-topics/body-image-eating-disorders/diversity-eating-disorders

Fuller, Kristen. “Eating Disorders: It's Not All About Food.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 22 Mar. 2017, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/happiness-is-state-mind/201703/eating-disorders-it-s-not-all-about-food

Walden Eating Disorders, The Role of Coaches in Eating Disorders.” 8 Feb. 2021, www.waldeneatingdisorders.com/blog/when-it-comes-to-eating-disorders-coaches-make-a-big-difference-good-and-bad/

TrueSport, ‘What You Need to Know About Disordered Eating in Athletes’ (December 7, 2020)

Walden Eating Disorders, “Which Athletes Likeliest to Develop EDs?” 8 Feb. 2021, www.waldeneatingdisorders.com/blog/which-athletes-are-most-likely-to-develop-eating-disorders/

Gender Differences in Eating Disorder Risk Among NCAA Division | Cross Country and Track Student-Athletes Gender Differences in Eating Disorder Risk among NCAA Division I Cross Country and Track Student-Athletes - PubMed (nih.gov)