Food: An Athlete’s Fuel--Editorial #1

Below is my editorial for the topic-- Athletes and Eating Disorders.

When hearing the term ‘athlete,’ the words that come to mind tend to be tone, fit, muscular, in-shape, and even work-out fanatic. These all relate to the body image perceived by an individual. Of the many activities, professional occupations for some, one can become involved within a society; athletics seem to be the culprit for accepting frail, thin, almost sickly looking figures.

In sports such as gymnastics, ballet, dancing, running and figure-skating, an emphasis for the athlete to be thin is present. This explains why a study done by the American College of Sports Medicine claimed that eating disorders affected 62 percent of females involved in these activities. The two most common types of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Anorexia Nervosa, more commonly known as anorexia, occurs when one limits their food intake, even though they are already too thin. Someone who is anorexic has an intense fear of gaining weight and tends to think about food often. Bulimia is when one eats an excess amount of food in a short time frame, known as binging. Binging causes feelings of shame and guilt, so the individual with bulimia tries to "undo" the binge by getting rid of the food, resulting to purging.

So, what or whom is to take the blame for these unrealistic body images? Often times an athlete feels pressured to be thin in order to impress coaches or judges with hopes of receiving the highest score possible and a pat on the back for a performance. Besides running, the athletic events mentioned previously require the athlete to take part in an atmosphere where judges are the ones who determine the participant’s score. Far too often, a judge considers the athlete’s body image—how thin they are—to play a factor in their overall performance score. Even wrestling requires a specific weight limit based on the weight class in which you want to compete. Many men involved in this sport resort to an eating disorder to cut weight before a meet. Due to the mindset that being on top and performing to one’s utmost level will occur if the athlete is thin, and having the pressure of coaches ‘be thin’ policy in the back of one’s mind, an eating disorder evolves.

Let’s face it—food is a necessity. An athlete with an eating disorder is at a higher risk of organ failure, leading to cardiac arrest, than a non-athlete. Research from the University of Leeds revealed that one in ten of Britain’s female distance runners has some kind of eating disorder. In 1994, Christy Henrich, a top world gymnast, lost her life at the age of 22 due to multiple organ failure. Henrich resorted to anorexia and bulimia after being told by a U.S. judge that she was too fat and needed to lose weight.

Athletes need food to replenish and nourish their bodies after putting themselves through strenuous, physical workouts. Dropping digits on the scale by refusing to eat and/or purging will not make an athlete compete better or perform stronger; the only result will be a handicap to their performance.

There are numerous ways to keep the weight off, in a healthier, body-friendly manner. Athletes today should not be judged by their skeleton-like figures. They compete in their sport for the enjoyment it brings them, not the body transformations some must undergo. As the race or competition comes to an end, what athlete wants to cross the finish line in a wheel chair? Worse yet, fail and not finish at all.



Signs and symptoms of eating disorders are often times difficult to see. While searching other resources for information on this topic, I came across some material that helps distinguish myths from realities of eating disorders. Some of the information came as a shock to me, while other facts cleared up some misconceptions that I had. One fact in particular was that you can not always tell that someone has an eating disorder by the size of their body. In many cases an individual is only 5 or 10 lbs. underweight but they may still have symptoms of an eating disorder. Here is the link to the Myths/Realities page: http://www.mirror-mirror.org/myths.htm. Look around the site for other interesting information discussing this topic.