I think I developed an eating disorder from researching about food too much? Any advice?

[PeskyPeater]

In the case of bipolar disorder treatment and improving brain structure, uridine seems effective. I've used 1gram per day to improve my brain and visual processing.

study: Short-term administration of uridine increases brain membrane phospholipids precursors in healthy adults: a 31-phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy study at 4T

This study demonstrates how a noninvasive technique such as 31P-MRS can be employed to understand enzymatic regulation of phospholipid metabolism in vivo. Uridine was recently shown to be an effective antidepressant in rat models of depression, and patients with bipolar depression might benefit from uridine (25). Jensen et al. (38) investigated bioenergetic effects of triacetyluridine (TAU), a uridine prodrug, in patients with bipolar depression. In this six-week study, patients who responded positively to treatment (≥ 50% reduction in Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale score) were found to have increased brain pH with respect to patients who did not respond to treatment. These authors argued that TAU ameliorated mitochondrial function in bipolar disorder by supporting oxidative rather than anaerobic respiration, resulting in increased pH in treatment responders (39). Cytidine, another pyrimidine nucleoside, is converted to uridine in the human gut (18). In a 1H-MRS study, cytidine effectively reduced glutamate/glutamine ratio in patients with bipolar depression in the anterior cingulate cortex with improvement of symptoms, suggesting supplementary action of pyrimidine nucleosides in improving glial and mitochondrial health (28). Reductions in brain glutamate, a weak organic acid, would lead to an increase in pH.

 

[InChristAlone]

People research and become more ordered at eating but the main stream call it a disorder which makes no sense.

Do you think obsessing over foods and making new lists everyday is becoming more ordered?

 

[Jonk]

I have a similair problem. Have some health issues and its easy getting lost down the rabbit hole. So many different actions, interactions etc etc. I've been on a two day binge and definitely need a break. What's helped me before is completely shifting focus from trying to fix ME and trying things like focusing on listening to others, like literally telling yourself before school/work to intently listen to what others have to say, without anything else in mind. Also working out without a mirror can help and trying to just feel different sensations in the body. Praying for others or just praying for yourself, giving away the burden of always trying to be in control, if you're into that.

I'm not sure if I have bipolar or something, but most of my bipolar symptoms came about last year when I was taking SSRIS (for only 2 weeks, I stopped for a long time and haven't taken them anymore for ages, and I seem to be "acting" normal now, but I don't "feel" or "think" normal and this might have been due to the stress during that time of my life that caused this, but I have lots of obsessive and compulsive thoughts that change literally every few hours or every day.

My main obsession and compulsion has to do with food, one day I'll write down a list "FOODS TO STOP EATING, ONLY EAT THESE FOODS" and try out a new way of eating the next day, then I'll think "nah that was a bad idea" and then I'll write something on the notepad like "Stop eating rice" the next day when I eat sweet potatoes and get a stomach ache, I might go back to my notepad and write "sweet potatoes gave you gas switch back to rice"

It's so annoying and painful but I can't stop because it's literally like an addiction sometimes, like I sort of "enjoy" doing it, although it is corrupting my mind there's something about writing down a list of foods I should eat and then a list of foods I shouldn't eat, and sometimes I will change the list in seconds, it'll go from "rice is good" to "stop eating rice its a dumb grain" and my choices keep changing.

The odd part about all this, is that I don't know if this is a symptom of high serotonin or high dopamine, people would say "high serotonin" but then again, I sometimes find doing this stuff "overly fun, motivating and exciting/entertaining sometimes, until I find it boring again and then realize that I spent 5 days writing down about food, then there's the high serotonin symptoms after getting bored of it (Apathy, boredom, confusion, agitation) that kick in. So I don't know what to do here, can someone help me out because this is getting on my nerves

 

[Herbie]

Do you think obsessing over foods and making new lists everyday is becoming more ordered?

I did the same thing in my head and it’s how I figured out what’s good for me and what isn’t, I re tested things time after time to see if anything’s changed. I did this over years and this process guided me.

I don’t trust anyone so I had to go through this testing process.

 

[InChristAlone]

I did the same thing in my head and it’s how I figured out what’s good for me and what isn’t, I re tested things time after time to see if anything’s changed. I did this over years and this process guided me.

I don’t trust anyone so I had to go through this testing process.

I can understand this process because I've done it many times, but honestly it only left me with few foods to eat. Sometimes we truly do have an inability to tolerate a food (I get severe cramping from whole grains), but many times it's psychosomatic symptoms because when we obsess over how a food made us feel it can put us in a reactionary fight or flight state making our reactions to food worse because adrenaline shuts down the digestive system. And also, just because you felt one way after a food doesn't mean you couldn't have your body adapt to that food over time. Like milk for instance, I refuse to drink it because my body can't digest it very well, but if I built it up over time I think I'd do fine as I used to drink it yrs ago, there's no reason why my body couldn't get used to it, but when we are restricting our diet down to few foods or few food groups then it needs time to adjust when we add food back in. The more 'ordered' (or disordered) your diet gets the less you can stray from those foods. The more healthy your relationship is to food the more variety you will be able to tolerate. At least that is how it's been in my experience. Everything is a threat when you are looking for it.

 

[Grouptose]

People research and become more ordered at eating but the main stream call it a disorder which makes no sense.

I read your comment and you helped me to stay on the forum without chickening out and ignoring my health like most people. Thank you for giving me that intuition, I suspected the same thing. Eating disorders are people who haven't found their optimal diet yet, I am hopeful everything will get into place when I settle on the right food and have good digestion

 

[stressless]

Eating disorders are people who haven't found their optimal diet yet,

This is not the definition of an eating disorder. There is no such thing as an optimal diet because our bodies, physical health, mental health, etc. are always changing and we need different food at different times to support where we're at in our life.

By this logic, every person has or has had an eating disorder. If I go out to eat with some friends and get a side of fries, does that mean that I have an eating disorder for the two hours that I'm at that restaurant eating fries? No. It means that I know how to live a balanced life and am not going to skip out on a bit of fun (within reason of course, maybe I'll split the fries with someone else) to achieve an 'optimal' diet.

Health is not just about diet, it's about holistic balance. If someone spends all day focusing on having the 'perfect' diet but does not spend time with friends, cultivate hobbies, have a good spiritual life, give back to their community, etc. then they are not healthy.

Re-read @sugarbabe's reply below, they make a lot of good points on how mental obsessions can make even healthy foods not agree with our body:

I can understand this process because I've done it many times, but honestly it only left me with few foods to eat. Sometimes we truly do have an inability to tolerate a food (I get severe cramping from whole grains), but many times it's psychosomatic symptoms because when we obsess over how a food made us feel it can put us in a reactionary fight or flight state making our reactions to food worse because adrenaline shuts down the digestive system. And also, just because you felt one way after a food doesn't mean you couldn't have your body adapt to that food over time. Like milk for instance, I refuse to drink it because my body can't digest it very well, but if I built it up over time I think I'd do fine as I used to drink it yrs ago, there's no reason why my body couldn't get used to it, but when we are restricting our diet down to few foods or few food groups then it needs time to adjust when we add food back in. The more 'ordered' (or disordered) your diet gets the less you can stray from those foods. The more healthy your relationship is to food the more variety you will be able to tolerate. At least that is how it's been in my experience. Everything is a threat when you are looking for it.

 

[Jerkboy]

If you are strict do one day or two days of eating whatever you want. Even if you get digestive pains. Take digestive enzymes/betaine HCL with it and you will be fine. Eventually the obsession becomes less. I think a lot of it is based on fear response. Override the fear by bombarding it.

 

[Herbie]

I read your comment and you helped me to stay on the forum without chickening out and ignoring my health like most people. Thank you for giving me that intuition, I suspected the same thing. Eating disorders are people who haven't found their optimal diet yet, I am hopeful everything will get into place when I settle on the right food and have good digestion

In some situations the only way to heal the digestion is the scale back the foods and identify which works, as the digestion becomes more robust, more foods can be experimented with. This usually comes in the order of cravings. It’s called an elimination diet which is used by practitioners to figure out whats causing intolerances and allergies. They keep eliminating things until the symptoms disappear then go about adding things back making sure symptoms don’t re appear.

Another is rotating foods every 72 hours and using diary for symptoms.

Most people weren’t taught to have a sensory relationship with their organs and that symptoms can be caused by foods and once it developed, it guides us.