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Jews and Eating Disorders
OP- ED Article for the Jerusalem Report
With the Jewish New Year upon us, observant
Jews the world over anticipate days of fasting to achieve
clarity of thought, personal self-awareness and moral cleansing.
As a Jew and as a psychotherapist specializing in the treatment
of eating disorders in children and their families for the
past 28 years, I have been witness to Jewish self-starvation
of another sort, for less lofty and more tragic purposes.
Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa represent a misuse of
food to resolve emotional problems and cope with anxiety and
stress; they strike 5% of adolescents, with an addition 15%
suffering from sub-clinical forms of disordered eating. At
ever younger ages, children in increasing numbers are succumbing
to disorders marked by body image concerns and propelled by
the underlying drive to be thin and a pathological fear of
weight gain.
All too frequently, these diseases go unnoticed
until they damage life quality, affecting the physical and
emotional functioning and well-being of its victims. To those
who are aware of the impact and magnitude of these problems
that afflict millions of American youth and adults alike,
what is particularly disturbing is the disproportionate number
of Jews with eating disorders. The Renfrew Center of Philadelphia
reports that at one point 12% of their inpatient eating disorder
population was Jewish, despite the fact that Jews make up
only 2% of the general population. Dr. Ira Sacker reports
that in a study of Orthodox Jewish girls in Brooklyn, one
out of nineteen were found to be eating disordered, a statistic
50% greater than the occurrence of these disorders in the
general population.
In a "shoot the messenger" analysis of the situation,
it is commonly presumed that there is something within the
practice, values and culture of Judaism that is responsible
for this phenomenon. Jewish parents, by virtue of their carrying
out the traditions and values of their faith are chastised.
The stereotypic image of the Jewish mother forcing food on
her child, "Ess, ess, mien kinde" gives rise to the image
of the controlling intrusiveness of a demanding and judgmental
parent, giving credence to the Jewish child's acting out in
response. In addition, Judaism's focus on food as the centerpiece
of Jewish celebration and tradition implicates Jewish observance.
Scientific research now points conclusively
to evidence of the roots of these diseases being in genetics,
in brain and body chemistries, and in personality structure
and temperament, in addition to environmental factors. It
is my belief that Judaism has gotten an unfair shake. The
Renfrew Center study was conducted in a large urban metropolis,
one which happens to be situated close to one of the world's
largest Jewish populations; this, in my mind, renders the
study's conclusions questionable. The high incidence of eating
disorders in the Orthodox community probably has less to do
with religiosity or the culture of Judaism than with the fact
that the self-discipline, mastery, and precision required
for Orthodox observance, when turned against or applied to
the self, can result in harmful consequences for those individuals
who are genetically predisposed.
Scientists are not entirely certain what gives
rise to eating disorders. Upward mobility, a characteristic
that has always defined the Jewish people, has been determined
to be a causal factor among ethic and minority groups. Contributing
secular influences may include the restructuring of the American
family in divorce, remarriage and family blending, more parents
entering the workforce with kids left to their own devices,
to the television, or their peers to determine how to live
and behave, what to eat, think and believe. Bombarded by a
fickle and toxic media, people have come to deify thinness
and, most significantly, have lost track of what healthy eating
is. They have forgotten that regular and moderate eating which
includes all the food groups at least three times a day is
as much a part of healthy living as is sleep, learning, study,
work, exercise or prayer.
If there is any correlation between Judaism
and eating disorders, it is my belief that it is not the Jewish
culture, traditions, values and laws that lay at the root
of the eating disorder phenomenon as much as it is the turning
away from these verities by the Jewish people. A recent study
of a group of Jewish women showed that secular Jews scored
higher than Orthodox Jews on measures of body dissatisfaction
and eating disorders, indicating that high levels of religious
observance may in fact, serve as a protective factor. The
values and mores of our wider society expressly contradict
those of Torah which have reliably taught us what to value,
how to live and how to raise our children through the generations.
On second look, we as Jews might just find that the solutions
we seek for ourselves and our children about problems that
we face today are, and have been, available to us for the
past 5,000 years.
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About the Author:
An internationally renowned expert in the treatment of eating
disorders, Abigail H. Natenshon, MA, LCSW, GCFP is
a psychotherapist who has treated children, adults, couples,
families and groups for the past 34 years. The author of When
Your Child Has An Eating Disorder: A Step-by-Step Workbook
for Parents and Other Caregivers (Jossey Bass Publishers,
1999), and the e-book Doing What Works: The Professionals’
Guide to the Treatment of Eating Disorders, Abigail is the
founder and director of Eating Disorder Specialists of Illinois:
a Clinic without Walls. She hosts three informative web sites,
www.empoweredparents.com,
www.empoweredkidZ.com,
a wholesome alternative to the pro-anorexic web sites, and
treatingeatingdisorders.com
designed specifically for health professionals and educators.
She has appeared on national television as an eating disorder
expert on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The John Walsh Show, Starting
Over (NBC) as well as on MSNBC and National Public Radio.
Abigail is also a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner
based on the work of Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais. She has become
a leader in using this neurophysiologic approach to augment
more traditional approaches to treating patients with eating
disorders and body image disturbances. She speaks widely to
parent and professional audiences and maintains a private
practice in Highland Park, Illinois where she resides with
her husband.
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