What is health? According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Let’s break it down and try to understand it a bit better. Oftentimes, people with eating disorders or with a disordered relationship with food, tend to use health as their excuse or motivation to keep a low or very low weight or to keep trying to achieve a lower body weight. Body weight is considered a risk factor for many diseases. More specifically, it is not so much your body weight, but the fat stored in your body and the distribution of this fat. In addition, we have to keep in mind that each person has a different healthy body size, based on their needs, the stage of their life, their general health, their mental health and of course their genes. Do you know your ideal body size?
Body weight or body size or body fat are just a few factors relating to your health. If we try to understand the definition given by WHO, you will realize that your physical health is just one part of the definition, that is interconnected to the other two. Now, we have a much better understanding of how your mental health or your social well-being are actually affecting your physical health. Research is actually suggesting that the most important predictor of a good healthy life is not your body size or if you ate enough portions of fruit or if you exercised today, but your socialization levels. This means that older individuals that had regular interactions with other people (via activity groups, friendships or family) had better health and lived longer. Let me ask you this now. Is your relationship with food affecting your relationships with other people? If yes, maybe it’s time to reevaluate if your health is actually benefiting from your social isolation, due to your rigid food schedule or your sense of shame around your body. Lack of healthy social interactions can also contribute to poor mental health, through the increase of depression, anxiety and other mental health disorders, which in turn will increase the risk for poor physical health.
Your mental health has a direct impact on your physical health and of course on your social well-being. I will use the example of anxiety, as it is the one more studied and the one many times co-exists with eating disorders. Chronic anxiety increases the risk of chronic medical conditions, such as arthritis, chronic pain, heart disease, stroke, hypertension, asthma, peptic ulcers and OBESITY. So, if you try to achieve health and a healthy body, but in your attempt to do so, your anxiety levels have increased, maybe it’s time to change your strategy.
Health is a complicated, multidimensional issue and that’s how we should be viewing and addressing it. Just staying in the “healthy” range of the BMI will not make you healthy. On the contrary, if your effort to stay within that range your mental health or your social well-being are taking the hit, your health is also taking a hit.
If you are suffering from an eating disorder or you have a complicated relationship with your body, and you feel like you are in a constant battle with food, ask for help from a mental health professional.
