Kimberly Garrison: Disordered eating cuts a wide path, especially among women, actors & pro athletes

IN OUR QUEST for perfect health and perfect bodies, many women and some men, too, have crossed the line into a condition called disordered eating.

In circles that include actors and dancers, or professional athletes such as runners, cyclists, wrestlers and physique athletes, disordered eating has become the norm.

But disordered eating is a slippery slope that could lead to serious health conditions and deadlier eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia.

A condition that may affect as many as 75 percent of American women between ages 25 and 45, disordered eating is a mix of compulsive eating behaviors that is often combined with body-image issues. Many teens and preteens are at risk as well, since it's estimated that as many as 80 percent of 13-year-old girls are dissatisfied with how they look and what they weigh.

Disordered eating is not about missing an occasional meal. It's an unhealthy, often compulsive need to control how and what you eat, accompanied by extreme remorse when you deviate from your self-imposed rules. Sometimes symptoms of other eating disorders are involved, too.

"Disordered eating has negative effects on overall health - emotional, social and physical. It may cause the individual to feel tired and depressed, decrease mental functioning and concentration, and can lead to malnutrition with risk to bone health, physical growth and brain development," according to the National Eating Disorders Information Center Web site.

Our drive to obtain physical perfection is taking many of us into some dark places.

Elyssa Phillips, a 28-year-old native New Yorker, came to Philadelphia in 2004 to pursue acting and a degree from the University of the Arts. She worked out (often as much as two hours a day), honed her craft, went on frequent auditions and, as is the case with many in show business, developed a troubling preoccupation with food - and the size of her thighs.

At the height of her disorder, she only consumed three foods: three ounces of baked chicken, nine baby carrots and a quarter-cup of brown rice, which she ate several times a day. Her weight plummeted to a dangerous 105 pounds (she's 5 foot 8 inches tall). Her body mass index (BMI) was 16.

"When I lost my period, that should have been a red flag, but I was excited," Elyssa told me. "I kept getting thinner and thinner, and everyone was telling me how good I looked. I was even getting more parts.

"I am not going to lie. I loved every second of it. My brother thought I was doing coke or heroin. My mother was getting very worried, but it didn't really matter till I hit rock bottom."

That was during a season working in summer stock, when she found herself bingeing on sweets and having thoughts of harming herself.

Last year, despite her therapist's recommendations, Phillips decided to participate in a figure contest, hoping it would help her overcome some of her internal demons and body-image issues.

Figure competitions are female-physique contests based on muscle tone as opposed to muscular size. While some participants compete in this subjective "sport" for the joy of it, I suspect many more suffer from poor body image and are seeking validation from external sources.

"In a way," said Phillips, "doing a figure contest is almost like an eating disorder because you have to control what you eat every few hours."

Phillips believes her participation in the contest both helped and hurt her. While it helped her to expand what she was eating to improve her musculature, it also reinforced her need to control her food habits.

Counseling is helping her to break the cycle and learn a sustainable and healthy way to care for and maintain her body.

"I'm still waiting to get my period, and according to my doctor, it's not good for a woman to lose her period," she said.

Her doctor is right.

While many women might celebrate not having their period, menstruation is important to a woman's health. Not having a period could put a young woman at serious risk for osteoporosis, infertility and other health issues.

Phillips now stands 141 pounds strong and is in school to become a registered dietitian. She wants to develop health and wellness programs specifically for the performing-arts community.

"I am only trying to stay on the road to recovery . . . it's a long process . . . mentally, physically and emotionally," she told me. "I can only hope that I can touch even one person with my story, so that they don't have to go through what I went through."

Kimberly Garrison is a certified personal trainer and owner of One on One Ultimate Fitness in Philadelphia (www.1on1ultimatefitness.com). E-mail her at

kimberly@1on1ultimatefitness.com. Her column appears each Thursday in Yo!