Making Food Feel Safe Again with an Eating Disorder Cookbook
March 28, 2016 11:43 PM Subscribe
Cole Kadzin at Broadly writes about Eating & Living: Recipes for Recovery , a cookbook with recipes and stories contributed by fellow survivors of eating disorders.
This is so moving. Having food that you can trust, that's safe, can mean so, so much.
posted by teponaztli at 2:03 AM on March 29, 2016
posted by teponaztli at 2:03 AM on March 29, 2016
I really want to read these recipes. like today. There is a metric ton of crap floating through my head, and most of it is current. Mefi has been a large component for me to process how the eating disorders of people I've known affected me. From ages 16-26 ('92 - '02) I was almost always involved with the food preparation and/or the emotional baggage involved with eating disorders. It kept me away from signing up for Mefi (seriously) before it cost $5.00. And instead of joining, I sat as a lurker until mefi posted about eating disorders and I responded. And eating disorders to some extent sent me to culinary school and made me be able to qualify and quantify how important food and culture were important to me. So yeah, I know about eating disorders from the perspective of the surviving companion.
And now, my wife is a personal trainer with a client who has mostly recovered but was as bad or worse than the experience that I went through - like we can talk about specific facilities in Massachusetts and talk about the pros and cons of the facility bad. Its good, being able to talk to someone about those places that is intimately familiar with them but that I have no emotional tie to is cathartic in a way that was unexpected. Moreover my wife being able to make sure that this person is capable of their exercise routine - because anorexia is a bad disease that can take skilled collegiate athlete and make their body amazingly prone to injury - like way more than someone without the disease. So yeah, this person has been over to our house a bunch, because their muscles have seized, because they've strained parts of their body that aren't normally strong, because they have required extra support.
When my wife took on this client, she asked me if it was ok, and whether or not she should, and what she needed to know going in to it. There was a lot, but the good thing is - when an anorexic comes to find a personal trainer, they are acknowledging that they need support and advice from someone. And, for someone that was at the point of recovery she was - it was pretty perfect timing. While my wife has trained her, I've fed her - not constantly, but my wife constantly has to have the conversation with her about how to fuel her body properly. So my wife goes technical with the food usage, and I go to town on the recipes to meet her requirements.
Making food for an anorexic is challenging... its like sales - you have to have the perfect sell-story for every dish. Making food for an anorexic in recovery is also challenging - you have to teach them not only to not view food as the enemy or as a point of contention, but exactly why your body needs cheese, and if you (as an anorexic) don't like a particular cheese, how you make and modify a recipe to make sure that the proteins, carbohydrates and veggies are appropriately on their plate. And my wife gets technical.... Ever carb cycled a vegetarian anorexic to help them improve their lifting? There are all kinds of crazy science experiments going on in our house specifically on how to get her client their correct nutrients and calories (as in more) to gain muscle and not go into a 'bad place'. And this stuff may be nutrient timing, macro nutrient absorption, an injury recovery diet, how to triple protein intake, and how to carb cycle for performance. And all this has gone on, with education for the recovering anorexic, who gets it, who makes progress forward.
Anyway, in my mind - that's what anorexics need, not hand holding comfort food designed to hide bananas in porridge, but actual recovery food, not food that hides their recovery. So this book is on order. I'll tell you if it is any good in a few months.
posted by Nanukthedog at 4:03 AM on March 29, 2016 [19 favorites]
And now, my wife is a personal trainer with a client who has mostly recovered but was as bad or worse than the experience that I went through - like we can talk about specific facilities in Massachusetts and talk about the pros and cons of the facility bad. Its good, being able to talk to someone about those places that is intimately familiar with them but that I have no emotional tie to is cathartic in a way that was unexpected. Moreover my wife being able to make sure that this person is capable of their exercise routine - because anorexia is a bad disease that can take skilled collegiate athlete and make their body amazingly prone to injury - like way more than someone without the disease. So yeah, this person has been over to our house a bunch, because their muscles have seized, because they've strained parts of their body that aren't normally strong, because they have required extra support.
When my wife took on this client, she asked me if it was ok, and whether or not she should, and what she needed to know going in to it. There was a lot, but the good thing is - when an anorexic comes to find a personal trainer, they are acknowledging that they need support and advice from someone. And, for someone that was at the point of recovery she was - it was pretty perfect timing. While my wife has trained her, I've fed her - not constantly, but my wife constantly has to have the conversation with her about how to fuel her body properly. So my wife goes technical with the food usage, and I go to town on the recipes to meet her requirements.
Making food for an anorexic is challenging... its like sales - you have to have the perfect sell-story for every dish. Making food for an anorexic in recovery is also challenging - you have to teach them not only to not view food as the enemy or as a point of contention, but exactly why your body needs cheese, and if you (as an anorexic) don't like a particular cheese, how you make and modify a recipe to make sure that the proteins, carbohydrates and veggies are appropriately on their plate. And my wife gets technical.... Ever carb cycled a vegetarian anorexic to help them improve their lifting? There are all kinds of crazy science experiments going on in our house specifically on how to get her client their correct nutrients and calories (as in more) to gain muscle and not go into a 'bad place'. And this stuff may be nutrient timing, macro nutrient absorption, an injury recovery diet, how to triple protein intake, and how to carb cycle for performance. And all this has gone on, with education for the recovering anorexic, who gets it, who makes progress forward.
Anyway, in my mind - that's what anorexics need, not hand holding comfort food designed to hide bananas in porridge, but actual recovery food, not food that hides their recovery. So this book is on order. I'll tell you if it is any good in a few months.
posted by Nanukthedog at 4:03 AM on March 29, 2016 [19 favorites]
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