Eating out with eating disorder

     
     Recently I have spoken to one of my childhood friends who suffer from anorexia for nearly 10 years. There were times when her life was threatened by the disease, being 5’7 feet tall she weighted a little over 6 stone. Despite necessity of hospital treatments to keep her alive and psychiatrists help she has managed to go through University course, graduate and find a dream job. She now lives in Paris and is very much accomplished woman, at least career-wise.

     She still struggles with eating disorder which limits her social life. It is impossible for her to go out for a meal, with friends or work colleagues. She cannot attend business meetings involving food. It is a nightmare for her to explain why she is only eating small amounts or not eating at all, menus are usually overwhelming or totally unsuitable for her diet (the diet prescribed by doctor).

     What if there was a restaurant for people suffering from eating disorder? With special menus and portions, not intimidating, not making the eating experience worse than it is already?

     Anorexia sufferers usually love to cook for others; maybe this could be a form of therapy? Kitchen staff involving people who recovers from anorexia.  

[…] When you have a child with an eating disorder, restaurants cease to be a place of relaxation and a break from cooking. Instead it becomes a place of incredible stress for everyone. Restaurant outing can be very difficult for several reasons: a restaurant often offers an overwhelming number of choices, the menu lists calories, and the food is prepared in an “unknown” (butter, oil, etc.) way.  Individually and collectively, these factors are anxiety-provoking and can be triggering for someone with an eating disorder.[…]

Via www.ucsdeatingdisorders.tumblr.com

[…]Restaurants in general go against all our Anorexic instincts. They require that you be social, exert energy talking to people. They mean you have to eat around others. They provide no calorific details about your food, and you have to surrender control of food prep to a stranger, who could chuck a whole bottle of olive oil whilst it's cooking (yes, I have panicked about this once too often.) They tempt you. A lot. And it's this image of loss of control which drives the two main struggling points in restaurants: Fear and Guilt.[…]

Via www.lovelifehateanorexia.blogspot.co.uk