It’s unbelievably common for people who are struggling with an eating disorder or disordered eating to struggle with poor digestion. So common in fact that the latest evidence has shown that up to 90% of people with eating disorders have IBS. 90%….

It is incredibly common for people with IBS (and an eating disorder) to disregard their poor/disordered eating habits and restrict their eating variety even more to improve their symptoms. 

What this does is fuel the eating disorder even more, restrict microbe diversity (the diversity of gut bugs in your guts),and potentially increase long term symptoms.

It’s a vicious cycle.

So, how does an eating disorder/disordered eating lead to tummy troubles?

Many reasons. Here are a few:

1. Breaking down of intestinal muscle – chronic restriction can cause the muscles of the small and large intestine to break down. This results in food taking longer to travel through our digestive tract, known as delayed gastric emptying, and causes stomach aches, bloating and wind. 
2. Limited hormones/enzymes – when the body is in starvation mode, fewer enzymes and hormones required to promote digestion are produced, therefore slowing down the process of digestion further
3. Limited fibre/water – these are really important for bowel regularity. A consequence of slow, inefficient digestion and poor bowel functioning is constriction, gas, bloating and reflux
4. Misuse of laxatives/purging – laxatives and purging disrupts normal bowel function and can cause symptoms such as: loss of intestinal muscle tone, bloating, gas, appearance of mucus and blood in the stool, incontinence of faeces, and reflux
5. Increase anxiety/stress – the gastrointestinal system is very sensitive to changes in mood due to what we call the ‘vagus nerve’. Anxiety and other mood disorders are incredibly common in people with eating disorders 

So, what to do? The first thing is to have an honest conversation with yourself about why your symptoms might be happening. If you think it may be worth while seeing a dietitian, I would highly recommend one

(and may know one if you’re interested).

Much love xx

Al xx