Eating disorder sufferers have been advised to stop fasting during Ramadan by health experts and parents have been urged to look out for tell-tale signs that their children may be in danger.
Muslims in Bahrain are fasting for an average of 14 hours during this year’s Ramadan and most break their fast at sundown while spending the entire night gorging on traditional dishes with their families.
Nutritional therapist Alia Almoayed highlighted the dangers of fasting while suffering from an eating disorder – which is considered one of the deadliest mental illnesses affecting more than nine per cent of the worldwide population.
“People should treat eating disorders the same way they treat any other physical ailment,” the 45-year-old mother-of-three told the GDN. “Whether you are looking at it from a nutritional or physical standpoint it can have dire consequences.
“Fasting has an abundance of health benefits, none of which are enjoyed by those with an eating disorder.”
She added that while fasting, an already malnourished body gets extremely overwhelmed and could trigger a dip in vital nutrients such as iron. She added that it could trigger survival mechanisms leading to another extreme of binge-eating.
“As a survival mechanism, your body gives you hunger signals to replenish the nutrients you’re lacking which can lead to alternating to another extreme which is binge-eating and consuming large quantities of food in a short period of time,” added Ms Almoayed.
“As the body is deprived of nutrients a binge usually involves unhealthy, nutritionally sparse, foods which leads to the body not gaining the needed nutrients.”
Her concern was shared by Sarah Pulliard, a guidance councillor at a respected health and wellness centre in South Africa.
“While I know that everyone’s case is different, in my professional and personal opinion fasting is a slippery slope that can also lead to someone in active recovery to relapse,” the former MKS student, with a university degree in psychology, told the GDN.
“Whether it be religious or cultural, I personally understand the obligation and pressure to partake in fasting, however the psychological dangers alone exempt you.
“To a typical person, the environment in which Ramadan is celebrated is wholesome and loving but to someone with an eating disorder it’s completely different.
“People with eating disorders are constantly competing to be the best at their eating disorders and in an environment where people starve themselves all day just to gorge on food – the worst gets brought out.”
The topic hits close to home for Ms Pulliard who has recently come to terms with her own binge-eating disorder.
“I was not being kind to myself or my body and, in an everlasting battle to be perfect, I lost myself,” she said. “Recovery is tough but rewarding.”
Meanwhile, a 19-year-old business student told the GDN that she was suffering from eating disorders. “I love Ramadan but probably not for the same reasons you do,” she added under the condition of anonymity.
“Ramadan allows me to mask my unhealthy habits without suspicion.
“I’m very self-aware and I know it’s bad. I’ve been suffering since I was 11 and I ruined my body. I have constant bad breath, dry and flaky skin, digestion issues which would result in me being constipated for days on end, and really bad hair loss to the point where I have bald spots at 19.
“On the one hand part of me feels bad because I’ve lost multiple Ramadans to my eating disorder but on the other hand I feel like I’m in too deep.”
Muslim clerics make it clear that illness remains a valid reason for not fasting. If one fears that fasting will worsen the sickness, delay its cure, or cause damage to anything in the body, then one has a valid excuse for breaking the fast too.
“In fact, one should break one’s fast under these circumstances, for the higher obligation is to keep oneself from becoming debilitated or, of course, from perishing,” the GDN was informed.
Any reader who is dealing with eating disorders should reach out to a mental health professional.
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