Research essay

The Psychology of a Picky Eater

So many factors, both environmental and inherited contribute to the development of Eating disorders such as bulimia or picky eating and to have close ties to psychological stress or trauma. The environmental factors, such as childhood stress or trauma are one side of this, while learned traits from parents or habits, or even from the media can attributed to eating disorders. As someone who has personally struggled with being a picky eater, recent reflections and lifestyle changes have forced me to dive deeper into the cause of this issue. I decided to delve into exploring the connection between psychological stress and childhood trauma that became associated with food, and caused a dislike for said associated food.

The connection between picky eating and psychological stress and trauma begins with post-traumatic-stress-disorder, panic disorder, and somatoform disorder (Graeme, Et. All; 562). These disorders normally have nothing to do with eating, but if they occur at an early age or in a situation including food, there is a twenty-percent increased chance of a eating disorder forming. Events such as family fighting, death, or divorce can cause this if brought up in a situation such as dinner or a meal together. Punishment for not eating, or punishment such as going to bed without supper can also contribute to this as well. This causes said psychological trauma or stress, and associates it with a certain food, characteristic of a food, or eating in general. In turn though, psychological disorders that were already present or developed at birth can contribute to the development of an eating disorder as well.

As previously stated, psychological ailments and conditions can contribute to eating disorders as well. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), and Perfectionists ( or traits related to perfectionism) are all examples of psychological conditions that can cause eating disorders.

OCD often causes bulimia and anemia, in cases where the subject sees themselves as overweight. This is also partially contributed to by the portrayal of body image in the media  (Agliata, Et. All; 11-13). On the other hand, the psychological condition can lead to self hate and half due to the portrayal of one’s body. The individual may feel the need to starve themselves or force themselves to gag or reject the food they consume. This becomes a dangerous situation often, and can lead to serious health problems and even hospitalization.

Though ADHD itself isn’t directly related to eating disorders, the treatment for it can often cause a lack of hunger. Medicine for ADHD often has a side effect of decreased hunger, and sometimes individuals forget to eat in general, and then eat absurd amounts of food when the medication wears off. This often leads to a decreased metabolism, and can cause weight gain in subjects. I’ve personally experienced this lately, and find myself forcing myself to eat three meals a day to regulate my metabolism and keep from gaining weight at the end of the day. This also causes me to pig-out and eat large amounts of food during the weekends when I don’t eat as much. Self-control is a large part of solving this issue, unfortunately, so results vary when trying to recover from large periods of taking medication. To an extent, it is almost like suffering from withdrawal, causing the individual to become hyperactive and overactive with food consumption. It is a recognized issue, but a necessary evil in ADHD treatment (Cortese, Et. All; 408).

Perfectionism is a prime example of a psychological trait that can produce an eating disorder. One particular study revealed that a high percentage of women who exhibited signs and symptoms of perfectionism developed some type of eating disorder, typically anorexia or bulimia (Bulik, Et. All; 366). I felt this personally in dealing with ADHD. With my medication, hunger is noticeably reduced, and when my medicine wears off, my appetite returns almost tenfold. I engorge myself with food, and then my metabolism can’t function enough to get rid of the fat I’ve eaten. Part of my problem though is my unhealthy eating habits to begin with, such as my dislike for vegetables and fruit.

I’ve never been accustomed to eating healthy. My underweight self could eat whatever I wanted and manage to lose weight. This has lead to myself becoming unacquainted with fruit and vegetables. If you were to ask me when the last time I ate vegetables or fruit was, I wouldn’t be able to answer. Though this isn’t a new problem to me, it’s something I’ve always put on the back burner, and would rather not deal with. Past experiences with trying new foods has made me stick to my inside ‘safe foods’ that I’m comfortable with, and prevent myself from trying new things. Even the scent or appearance of foods I don’t like can sometimes make me sick on my stomach. If I try to eat new things, It’s almost as if my brain rejects the food immediately, and my gag reflex goes wild, often causing a messy and embarrassing situation at the dinner table. Things weren’t always this way however, which is why I decided to take on the challenge of learning more about eating disorders, and what can cause them in cases such as mine.

As a child, I loved all sorts of foods, but that quickly came to an end after suffering psychological stress I associated with eating. My mother would force me to try things I had no interest in, and left a bad taste in my mouth, often literally. As a result, I began to refuse to try any new foods for quite a while, resulting in my picky eating. My mother, not being a huge fan of vegetables either, tried to get me to eat more fruit, which didn’t happen to do much, to her dismay. In this way, we differ, with my traits strongly reflecting my mother’s (to the extent that I disliked vegetables) but not in the way she preferred fruit. A study by Amy Galloway, Laura Fiorito, Yoonnia Lee, and Leann Birch revealed that it’s not out of line for children to pick up on their parent’s eating habits (541). To add to this though, there is an evident connection between body image and eating.

    Personally, I like to be within the weight and health standards set by society and portrayed by the media. As a result, I tend to prefer being a bit skinnier. In today’s society which is pressuring women towards an ‘ideal’ skinny body image, young women and adolescent females tend to eat less to lose weight. Unfortunately, this causes many young women to develop anemia, or even lead to them gagging themselves to not eat. Some go as far to almost starve themselves, landing them in the hospital. This isn’t exclusive to women and females though, as a study by Agliata and Tantleff-Dunn reveal. In their study, men were exposed to varying media portrayals of an ideal or attractive male, and their reactions were recorded. The results revealed that about sixty-percent of the males had some sort of negative reaction to the commercials, and felt more self-conscious about their looks, and were more likely to change what they ate, or how much they ate after the exposure (Agliata, Et. All; 11-13). This is a prime example of the involvement of the media on how we perceive ourselves and our looks. I’ve felt this way before, often in middle school I wanted to be skinnier, leading myself to stop eating as much as usual. This actually hampered my metabolism, and caused me to gain even more weight than when I didn’t eat, and making my solution to the problem pointless.

Picky eating isn’t just a personal issue, it’s a societal issue. We choose to set high standards for beauty and attractiveness, which doesn’t help the fact that many of those people already suffer from psychological conditions that affect their ability to  eat or eat healthy. Society is partially to blame for the issue at hand, but psychology holds the rest of it. Bullying due to appearance is one aspect, while depression and other conditions are to blame as well (Dovey, Et. All; 183). It is well understood that this isn’t an easy issue to fix, it could take years to mend, but ultimately is something to be considered.

While changing one’s eating habits is possible, it is a difficult task to carry out. It is a personal matter, with the individual having to change their state of mind and overcome psychological stress, trauma, or even condition to make it happen. I’ve personally struggled with this, but with time comes change. I’ve began to improve my eating habits to include more organic food and less processed or greasy food, which was the source of my original weight gain. Exercise and walking has become something I track daily and try to reach a goal of every day. While my picky eating with vegetables and fruit hasn’t changed much, I’m slowly working to overcome that barrier. I’ve made myself eat three meals a day, to work my metabolism, rather than letting it work harder to process more food. The information I’ve dug up from research has allowed me to see what personal changes I must make, as well as what societal issues there are and how people are generally affected by psychological conditions that cause picky eating. The results are astounding, and I can only hope our society not only changes its eating habits, but helps those who have bad health instead of ridiculing them.

Works Cited

Agliata, Daniel, and Stacey Tantleff-Dunn. "THE IMPACT OF MEDIA EXPOSURE ON MALES’ BODY IMAGE." Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 23.1 (2004): 7-22. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.

Bulik, Cynthia M., PhD, Federica Tozzi, MD, Charles Anderson, MA, Suzanne E. Mazzeo, PhD, Steve Aggen, PhD, and Patrick F. Sullivan, MD. "The Relation Between Eating Disorders and Components of Perfectionism." Am J Psychiatry 160.2 (2003): 366-68. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.

Cortese, Samuele, MD, Bernardo D. Bernardina, MD, and Marie-Christine Mouren, MD. "Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Binge Eating." Nutrition Reviews 65.9 (2008): 404-11. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.

Dovey, Terence M., Paul A. Staples, E. Leigh Gibson, and Jason C.G. Halford. "Food Neophobia and ‘picky/fussy’ Eating in Children: A Review." Appetite 50 (2008): 181-93. Www.sciencedirect.com. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.

Fairburn, Christopher G., and Paul J. Harrison. "Eating Disorders." The Lancet 361 (2003): 407-16. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.

Galloway, Amy T., PhD, Laura Fiorito, RD, Yoonna Lee, PhD, and Leann L. Birch, PhD. "Parental Pressure, Dietary Patterns, and Weight Status among Girls Who Are “Picky Eaters”." Journal of the American Dietetic Association 105.541 (2005): 541-48. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.

Taylor, Graeme J., James D.A. Parker, Michael Bagby, and Michael P. Bourke. "RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ALEXITHYMIA AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS ASSOCIATED WITH EATING DISORDERS." Journal of Psychosomatic Research 41.6 (1996): 561-68. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.