Is chewing and spitting really an eating disorder?

[Shawe123]

Well I have a condition called Gastroparesis where my stomach is paralyzed and dosent digest food very well. So whenever i eat I get very nauseous and sometimes even vomit. Since i wasnt able to eat what i wanted i thought chewing and spitting would be best cause i still get to "eat" the foods i love except for im not swallowing them. I chew and spit lunch, snacks, and dinner but get about 600 calories from breakfast. People say it should be labled as in eating disorder but its not bexcause you still get some calories, bitamins, and minerals(most is junk food though). So in your opinion, do you think it is? With explantion please:) thanks

[Shawe123]

I never used to restrict i could eat what ever i wanted whenever I wanted and have never had an eating disorder. I cannot work up what to eat because i will vomit, gastroparesis is an incurable disese and cant be cured just by eating more, that would actually make it worse. I went to te doctor the other day and found out that i am at the perfect weight and not malnurished ect. Thanks for responding but i dont appreciate people telling me that i have an eating disorder or that an eating disorder caused my gastroparesis.

[Sylandi]

If I'm understanding your post correctly, you're not getting much more than 600 calories a day since you're not digesting your later meals. That is WAY too little for a healthy metabolism--you are starving yourself. I have heard that gastroparesis can actually be a result of not eating enough, as the body slows down the metabolism to almost a grinding halt in order to get every bit of nutrition from what it eats. Paradoxically, the only way to solve your digestion problems may be to work up to eating enough.

[Idyllic]

At current the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV)  does not list “spitting and chewing” as a separate, diagnosable eating disorder. Rather it is listed as one of the few characteristics of the diagnosis Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS)

The EDNOS category is for disorders of eating that do not meet the criteria for any specific Eating Disorder. Examples include:

1 For females, all the criteria for Anorexia Nervosa are met except that the individual has regular menses.

2 All the criteria for Anorexia Nervosa are met except that, despite significant weight loss, the individual’s current weight is in the normal range.

3 All the criteria for Bulimia Nervosa are met except that the binge eating and inappropriate compensatory mechanisms occur at a frequency of less than twice a week or for a duration of less than 3 months.

4 The regular use of inappropriate compensatory behaviour by an individual of normal body weight after eating small amounts of food (e.g. self-induced vomiting after the consumption of two biscuits.

*****5 Repeatedly chewing and spitting out, but not swallowing, large amounts of food. *********

6 Binge-eating disorder: recurrent episodes of binge eating in the absence of the regular use of inappropriate compensatory behaviours characteristic of Bulimia Nervosa.


http://www.eatingdisorders.org.nz/index.php?id=836

http://www.addictions.net/id273.html#.UZRkE0pYTAk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_disorder_not_otherwise_specified