To think that MN is a haven for people with eating disorders.

[IPityThePontipines]

On any food thread there are abnormal levels of fixation with certain food groups being "bad" or "poison" and an awful lot of people seem to have very unhappy relationships with food.

And before anyone pops up with "obesity crisis", I'd point out that we are seeing growing rates of anorexia and bulimia in the UK too.

I dont think its new or exclusive to mn. I think for ever now people have been taking side glances at other peoples parenting to see how theirs compares especially on food. I remember the scandal of 'Thomas has 3 weetabix' when my niece (now 23) was a baby, my SIL was fixated with how her friends baby was so overfed in her opinion. Funny thing is my niece was the one who ended up obese in primary school.

Ha! It definitely made an impression on people treacle.

It's a haven for people with minimal understanding of nutritional science but absolute certainty that they are correct

If by "it" you mean the internet, then yes.

The internet is generally a great place to hang out and claim to be an expert in something that you are not.

YANBU

I used to spend a lot of time on ED/pro ana forums and I see similarities on some threads on MN. I don't think there's anything wrong with healthy and spirited discussions about diet, exercise and different styles of eating. It's more the 'how much do you weigh' type threads where people are posting perfectly healthy weights and talking about how fat they are and how they have loads to lose. I just hide them now as there's a very good reason I don't go on pro ana forums and I don't want to see it here.

Magpie we can still be a healthy weight according to BMI calculators and fat.

According to the NHS calculator, I could gain another 2 stone and still be within the healthy range.

I would most definitely be fat though. Everyone carries weight differently.

It's more the tone/ language of threads like that which remind me of pro ana sites. As I said, I end up hiding them because of that.
I'm not saying that everyone on them has a disordered view of themselves, everyone is happy at different weights.
I'm aware that my own issues and history will impact on how I read it.

I'm not sure. I had an ED in my teens (I'm 29 now) and do end up hiding some threads after getting into arguments with people and feeling some of the bad feelings resurface. Unless folk ask for opinions, I think it's wiser and fairer to keep your opinions about others' weight to yourself. I'm a bit overweight now but glad not to be suicidal.

Worra i agree. i was a whole stone within healthy BMI once and looked podgy, had the start of a double chin etc. Not huge by any means but not many people i think would have looked at me and thought she's skinny.

I think eating disorder is a little strong.

However, I think for women who have grown up in the 90s and 00s, many of us are "funny" about eating, or impose certain rules on ourselves, or hold strong opinions about certain foods.

For the most part, I see on MN an effort from many users, like myself, who try hard not to pass on their own feelings about food to their children and encourage their children to have a relaxed and unemotional relationship with food.

The opposite happens here too as in eating way too much is seen as the norm; remember the recent thread about McD's and nearly everyone saying they order two burgers, fries, milkshake etc.
I was recently laughed at on here for saying I wouldn't eat a whole tub of Ben & Jerry's ice cream all at once.

And then there are the posts from people who are 3 stone over weight and want to magically lose it in two days before an important event...

I find it more a haven for fussy eaters. People with eds are not going to be the ones advising others to replace bread with oatcakes and slating the sugary fruit. Never read any advice to starve oneself, to binge eat or to puke.

Yes, there are also a lot of competitive eating threads to counteract the home made lentil salad and museli ones.

Oh the competitive home made food threads, worra! I make crumpets and fish fingers myself, so I know the ingredients are bio and fat free and hand-killed .

Even I don't eat a whole tub of Ben and Jerry's at one sitting, and I can put away a lot! I usually manage to ration myself to eat it over 3 (not necessarily consecutive) days. I wonder if it's depriving yourself of goodies that leads to such binge behaviour. Or because they skipped a previous meal and were then starving - I could manage a whole tub ok if it were the only thing I'd eaten that day. But that would be unwise, even if it does have fruit in it I'd probably feel sick

some "food" actually is shit and has no nutritional value whatsoever

I never understand this statement. If food contains energy, it has nutritional value surely. If you're starving and at death's door, will a prepackaged cupcake, primula and a packet of haribo help you? Yes they will. The only foods that have no nutritional value whatsoever are maybe water and salt (and even they are vital).

I understand the importance of eating a wide range of food, avoiding too much sugar, and trying to keep as much of your diet fresh and unprocessed as possible, and not eating to excess. That's basically healthy eating. Many GPs and experts say if you can manage it 70-80% of the time, not to worry if you eat some less healthy stuff, because we're all busy, under social pressure etc. and eating 100% perfectly is pretty hard work.

This belief that some foods are nutritionally void is really unhelpful.

As for two Macdonalds, I wouldn't even eat one, but then there aren't too many calories in cardboard.

Yes, those and the competitive cake and chocolate eating where greed suddenly becomes hilarious

I do think after a while, all these mad threads kind of balance each other out.

Meanwhile I suppose the majority of MNetters probably eat what they fancy without sticking to all these crazy things, but starting a thread about it wouldn't bring much interest.

Agree.

The food and weight threads quite often make me cry and hate myself.

I also think the problem is a lot to do with that sense of polarisation – you're either a perfect saint who would cross the street to avoid a processed cheese slice and would never let your children see a hobnob until they're 18, or you're a binge-eating desperado who quaffs entire tubs of Ben and Jerry's and beats yourself up.

It doesn't have to be like that. You can have a wide-ranging diet and moderation in all things, meaning you can eat healthily, be a healthy weight and still enjoy some cake or ice cream.

But there's this weird cultural pressure to ally yourself with one camp or the other.

YABU, this is the internet! There are plenty of places to go if you want to indulge yourself in positivity about a particular eating disorder, but mn isn't one of them.

Yes some people refer to fast food as 'shit' on here, some low carb some do various diets, so what? It doesn't make it a haven for eating disorders for goodness sake, get a grip! Do you go into Pets At Home and say 'ohh it's a haven for animal abusers in here'?

""Why is food, any food "shit"? ""

Because whilst it's edible, it's been created by the "Food" Industry, but isn't what we should be eating, regularly (if at all).

It isn't "Food", it's manufactured crap.

If you take this definition of Food, then most of what's on sale in the Supermarkets, isn't 100% foodstuffs, even though we can eat it.

""Food: any nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink or that plants absorb in order to maintain life and growth.""

Processed food should be a small % of our diet.

I think that we'll look back and wonder why we filled ourselves full of this stuff, like views about smoking.

It doesn't have to be like that. You can have a wide-ranging diet and moderation in all things, meaning you can eat healthily, be a healthy weight and still enjoy some cake or ice cream.

I agree and this is how I think it is for the majority of Mumsnetters

But threads like that don't seem to get much attention because they're too 'normal' IYSWIM?

There is a lot of sneering at the 'magic chicken', and stretching it out to make a second, or even third meal, which always surprises me. As if it's absurd for a family of four to not eat an entire chicken in one sitting.

Tesco's are selling art supplies now, it's like a haven for vandalists. And arsonists, probably.