Eating Your Way to Recovery After Anorexia

Anorexia is a terrible and tragic disease that causes untold misery and anguish for the victim who is oftentimes trapped in their very own private hell as they fear rebuke and rejection if they were to confide their feelings to someone else, especially those whom they are closest to be it friends or family. With anorexia, the victim will refrain from eating as a direct consequence of a very prevalent and strongly ingrained belief and phobia that the victim has: that they are in someway repulsive due to their (imagined) excess weight or some other form of physical flaw/imperfection. In order to “cure” themselves of this “defect” of their body and general appearance, the anorexia sufferer will come to view food with suspicion, even hostility and fear.

By not eating food, and purging themselves of the limited amounts of food that they do ingest, the anorexia sufferer will be placing their health at a significant degree of risk, and so anorexia sufferers will face a myriad of health complaints. Due to the excessive vomiting that they induce, this means that their teeth will yellow and rot due to the highly corrosive nature of the stomach acid that is continually brought to their mouth.

Depression, fatigue and a general impairment of cognitive ability will occur as the blood sugar of the body is severely impaired and compromised. Furthermore, the density of the bones will reduce by an exponential amount which in turn makes them far more brittle and therefore vulnerable to fracturing, and in the event that the bones ARE fractured, they will take much longer to heal.

The following is an overview of some of the most essential vitamins and nutrients that a person suffering from anorexia should ingest, to help counter the damage that they have endured.

• Zinc: not all people who suffer from anorexia will have a zinc deficiency, however, studies have proven that the mineral will help with weight gain.
• Calcium: another essential mineral, as it will help with the development and repair of new, healthy teeth and bones both of which are directly affected by the disease.