Dr. Agnes Ayton & Dr. Ali Ibrahim - Disordered Eating

Dr. Ali Ibrahim is training in Child and Adolescent psychiatry in London with an interest in eating disorders, and Dr. Agnes Ayton is a consultant psychiatrist in eating disorders in Oxford.

We talk about:

• The Western diet - a blind spot in eating disorder research
• Prevalence of eating disorders has increased
• Dietary and lifestyle approaches to eating disorders
• Mythbusting: 1) Variety is about nutrition rather than type of food  2) High eating frequency isn’t necessarily required  3) The difference between fasting and starvation
• Disordered eating is a spectrum that many more are on than are officially diagnosed. Change of eating disorder prevalence and type from small number with anorexia to more with that, bulimia, and binge eating disorder. Up to 6% now with diagnosis, but many more with disordered eating.
• Food environment change over last 50 years is prime suspect
• Very few descriptions (going back to 1689) of anorexia nervosa, explosion in the late 20th century of binge eating disorders
• Disordered eating through lens of evolutionary sexual competition (women showing bodies on social media and comparison driving disordered eating)
• Lack of seasonality in modern food environment driving disordered eating
• Carbs and fats artificially combined all year round driving disordered eating, like we are eating fruit and nuts together by several species fattening up
• Omega 6 to omega 3 fat ratio
• Negative linoleic acid impact on gut health, metabolic health, and eating habits
• Food type discussion a good thing in treating disordered eating
• Categorising food as better or worse is important and not to be avoided
• NOVA food classification - how industrially processed a food is
• Complex mechanisms for UPFs driving disordered eating
• Sugar, veg oils, and trans fats all drive the issue
• Novel multiple chemical ingredients
• “Diet” products often badly backfire
• Ultra-processed foods are not metabolically inert
• No evidence of someone who’s obese or has T2D going on low carb diet and developing an eating disorder
• Body image on social media vs food environment
• People binge 100% on ultra-processed-processed foods
• Breastfed babies stop eating before gaining weight compared to bottle fed

Agnes can be found at:

Twitter - https://twitter.com/AgnesAyton

Ally can be found at:

Twitter - https://twitter.com/paleocanteen

Twitter - https://twitter.com/paleoally

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/paleocanteen

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/AllyHouston