Eating Disorders: Religion, Spirituality and Mental Health: Results From a National Study of English Households.

Religion, spirituality and mental health: results from a national study of English households.

Filed under: Eating Disorders

Br J Psychiatry. 2012 Nov 22;
King M, Marston L, McManus S, Brugha T, Meltzer H, Bebbington P

BACKGROUND: Religious participation or belief may predict better mental health but most research is American and measures of spirituality are often conflated with well-being. AIMS: To examine associations between a spiritual or religious understanding of life and psychiatric symptoms and diagnoses. METHOD: We analysed data collected from interviews with 7403 people who participated in the third National Psychiatric Morbidity Study in England. RESULTS: Of the participants 35% had a religious understanding of life, 19% were spiritual but not religious and 46% were neither religious nor spiritual. Religious people were similar to those who were neither religious nor spiritual with regard to the prevalence of mental disorders, except that the former were less likely to have ever used drugs (odds ratio (OR) = 0.73, 95% CI 0.60-0.88) or be a hazardous drinker (OR = 0.81, 95% CI 0.69-0.96). Spiritual people were more likely than those who were neither religious nor spiritual to have ever used (OR = 1.24, 95% CI 1.02-1.49) or be dependent on drugs (OR = 1.77, 95% CI 1.20-2.61), and to have abnormal eating attitudes (OR = 1.46, 95% CI 1.10-1.94), generalised anxiety disorder (OR = 1.50, 95% CI 1.09-2.06), any phobia (OR = 1.72, 95% CI 1.07-2.77) or any neurotic disorder (OR = 1.37, 95% CI 1.12-1.68). They were also more likely to be taking psychotropic medication (OR = 1.40, 95% CI 1.05-1.86). CONCLUSIONS: People who have a spiritual understanding of life in the absence of a religious framework are vulnerable to mental disorder.
HubMed – eating

Assessment of the dining environment on and near the campuses of fifteen post-secondary institutions.

Filed under: Eating Disorders

Public Health Nutr. 2012 Oct 17; 1-11
Horacek TM, Erdman MB, Byrd-Bredbenner C, Carey G, Colby SM, Greene GW, Guo W, Kattelmann KK, Olfert M, Walsh J, White AB

OBJECTIVE: The present study evaluated the restaurant and dining venues on and near post-secondary campuses varying in institution size. DESIGN: The Nutrition Environment Measures Survey for Restaurants (NEMS-R) was modified to evaluate restaurants as fast food, sit down and fast casual; and campus dining venues as dining halls, student unions and snack bar/cafés. ANOVA with post hoc Tukey’s B and T tests were used to distinguish differences between dining venues and associated institutions by size. SETTING: The study was conducted at fifteen US post-secondary institutions, 2009-2011. SUBJECTS: Data presented are from a sample of 175 restaurants and sixty-eight on-campus dining venues. RESULTS: There were minimal differences in dining halls by institution size, although medium-sized institutions as compared with small-sized institutions offered significantly more healthful side dish/salad bar items. Dining halls scored significantly higher than student unions or snack bar/cafés on healthful entrées, side dish/salad bar and beverages offerings, but they also had the most barriers to healthful dietary habits (i.e. all-you-can-eat). No differences were found by restaurant type for NEMS-R scores for total restaurant dining environment or healthful entrées and barriers. Snack bars had more healthful side dishes (P = 0·002) and fast-food restaurants had the highest level of facilitators (i.e. nutrition information; P = 0·002). CONCLUSIONS: Based on this evaluation in fifteen institutions, the full campus dining environment provides limited support for healthy eating and obesity prevention. The quality of campus dining environments can be improved via healthful offerings, providing nutrition information and other supports to facilitate healthy eating and prevent unwanted weight gain.
HubMed – eating

Perception of front-of-pack labels according to social characteristics, nutritional knowledge and food purchasing habits.

Filed under: Eating Disorders

Public Health Nutr. 2012 Jul 27; 1-11
Méjean C, Macouillard P, Péneau S, Hercberg S, Castetbon K

OBJECTIVE: To identify patterns of perception of front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition labels and to determine social factors, nutritional knowledge and attention to packaging features related to such patterns. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. Perception was measured using indicators of understanding and acceptability of three simple FOP labels (the ‘Green Tick’, the logo of the French Nutrition and Health Programme (PNNS logo) and ‘simple traffic lights’ (STL)) and two detailed formats (‘multiple traffic lights’ (MTL) and the ‘colour range’ logo (CR)). Associations of perception patterns with individual characteristics were examined using ? 2 tests. SETTING: Data from the French NutriNet-Santé cohort study. SUBJECTS: A total of 38 763 adults. RESULTS: Four perception patterns emerged. Poorly educated individuals were most often found in groups favouring simple formats. The ‘favourable to CR’ group had a high rate of men and older persons. Poor nutritional knowledge was more frequent in the ‘favourable to STL’ group, while individuals with substantial knowledge were proportionally more numerous in the ‘favourable to MTL’ group. The ‘favourable to STL’ group more frequently self-reported noting price and marketing characteristics during purchasing, while the ‘favourable to MTL’ and ‘favourable to CR’ groups declared more interest in nutritional information. The ‘favourable to Green Tick and PNNS logo’ group self-reported paying closer attention to claims and quality guarantee labels. CONCLUSIONS: The ‘favourable to MTL’ cluster was most frequently represented in our survey. However, simple FOP formats may be most appropriate for increasing awareness of healthy eating among targeted groups with poor nutritional knowledge and little interest in the nutritional quality of packaged foods.
HubMed – eating

Formative evaluation of the feedback component of Children’s and Adolescents’ Nutrition Assessment and Advice on the Web (CANAA-W) among parents of schoolchildren.

Filed under: Eating Disorders

Public Health Nutr. 2012 Jul 27; 1-12
Vereecken C, Covents M, Maes L, Moyson T

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the paper is to describe the formative evaluation of the feedback component of an online nutrition tailoring instrument, the Children’s and Adolescents’ Nutrition Assessment and Advice on the Web (CANAA-W), among parents of schoolchildren. DESIGN: Parents of pre-primary and primary-school children recorded their child’s food intake over 3 d with CANAA-W and completed the evaluation questionnaire online. A subsample participated in focus group discussions. SETTING: Parents completed CANAA-W at home. SUBJECTS: Forty-six parents completed the evaluation questionnaire. Seventeen parents participated in three focus group discussions. RESULTS: Parents were enthusiastic: the majority (81 % or more) found the advice comprehensible, interesting, logical, useful, believable, well formulated, correct, personal, relevant, complete, attractive, containing enough and not too much information; they indicated that it is helpful to improve their children’s eating habits and that they intend to use it. The qualitative analyses revealed that the respondents appreciated the confrontation with their child’s diet and the visualization (i.e. traffic light colours, pictograms, food models, diagrams). The length of the feedback was rather a drawback, but it was useful nevertheless. CONCLUSIONS: CANAA-W was well received by the parents; the scores on the feasibility questionnaire were high and the qualitative analyses showed that the confrontation with their child’s diet, and attractive visualization of the most relevant feedback linked to more elaborated optional feedback, were well appreciated. The major challenge will be to convince parents who are less interested in food habits and less computer-literate to participate in this type of study.
HubMed – eating

The gut microbial metabolome: modulation of cancer risk in obese individuals.

Filed under: Eating Disorders

Proc Nutr Soc. 2012 Nov 23; 1-11
Russell WR, Duncan SH, Flint HJ

Obesity is a critical health concern and although genetic factors may predispose an individual to become obese, changes in diet and lifestyle over the last few decades are likely to be significant contributors. Even so, it has been suggested that the causes of the current obesity crisis are not simply explained by changes in eating and exercise habits. Evidence suggests that the gut microbiota may play an important role in obesity and may be a factor in the development of associated disease including diabetes, CVD, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and cancer. There have been tremendous advances in knowledge regarding the composition of human gut microbiota, but less is known about their function and role within the human host. It is becoming widely accepted that the products of microbial metabolism influence human health and disease, particularly with respect to immune response and inflammation. However, in most cases, the products of microbial metabolism are uncharacterised and their mechanism of action remains unknown. This review addresses the role of the metabolites produced by gut microbiota in cancer and obesity. It is clear that only if the link between microbial diversity and metabolic functionality is firmly established, will the mechanism by which gut microbiota maintains health or contributes to disease development be elucidated.
HubMed – eating

How to Diagnose Anorexia, Bulimia, and Binge-Eating Disorder – DSM-IV-TR (199/365) – “Eating disorders are psychiatric disturbances involving abnormal eating behaviors, maladaptive efforts to control shape and weight, and disturbances in perceived body shape. Three eating disorders are recognized in the literature: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder. These eating disorders commonly emerge during adolescence and can result in severe subjective distress, functional impairment, morbidity, and mortality.” – Chapter 16: Eating Disorders, 4th edition of Assessment of Childhood Disorders, edited by Eric J. Mash and Russell A. Barkley I figured that I would share with you some of the information on eating disorders that I have been learning about for my Psychopathology Across the Life Span class. I talk about the DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder. This video is in no way comprehensive of these and other kinds of eating disorders and because of time restraints I wasn’t able to go in depth about etiology (what brings on eating disorders), risk and vulnerability, prognosis, symptoms, and clinical features. I didn’t even get to talk about eating disorders not otherwise specified (ED-NOS)! If I did all of that, this video would be an hour long and thus wouldn’t be able to be posted! If you have any questions about eating disorders please leave them below. Eating disorders are serious and happen to so many people around the world, so please be sensitive.

More Eating Disorders Information…