Diabetes Eating Disorder

Sufferers of diabetes need to be extra-careful about controlling their food intake and weight, but have the double problem of needing treatment which makes them hungry. “Attempts to maintain healthy blood sugar levels and prevent weight gain may suggest an eating disorder when the disease and its treatment are to blame, said Dr. Deborah Young-Hyman, pediatric psychologist at the Medical College of Georgia’s Georgia Prevention Institute. ‘You can’t use the same criteria to diagnose eating disorders that you use in non-diabetic populations because what we actually prescribe as part of diabetes treatment is part of disordered eating behavior. Food preoccupation is one example,’ she said. Preoccupation with food, in fact, is required for optimal disease management. Questions like ‘What are you putting in your mouth? Did you know that was going to raise your blood sugar?’ are a part of life, Dr. Young-Hyman said. Young women, and increasingly young men, also are not immune from societal pressures to be thin, she noted.”