Eating Disorders impact your relationship with food and your nutrition in a variety of ways. There are so many different types of eating disorders, Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder, ARFID, OSFED, and others that are not yet even a diagnosis! Due to the fact that so many different forms of eating disorders exist, it provides the conundrum that eating can be impacted in many different ways.
Individuals with eating disorders are often terrified or eating or eating certain foods. This may lead to an avoidance of eating all together. A part of recovery, and working with your dietitian, might look like following a meal plan, discussing adequate portion sizes, making goals to challenge fear foods, or perhaps, meal support.
What Is Meal Support?
Meal support is a space to have a meal in a recovery-focused setting. With either a therapist or a registered dietitian present, together or in a group setting, meal support focuses on decreasing eating disorder behaviors while eating and practice implementing skills to remain recovery-focused. Meal times are often sabotaged by the eating disorder, therefore, working with a trained professional in how to best use this time can be really helpful.
Our instagram is home to our Snack With A Dietitian videos that encourage you to have a snack while you listen to one of our RDs discuss a common question, concern, or trend. Watch those videos by clicking the button below.
Who Can Provide Meal Support?
Typically meal support is provided by an eating disorder professional in the treatment setting. However, if in the outpatient setting, family members and friends may be trained in how to provide meal support by a member of the eating disorder treatment team. It is important to seek professional help in how to best provide support during meal times because these are such challenging experiences for an individual in eating disorder recovery.
What Does Meal Support At Bamboo Nutrition Look Like?
At Bamboo Nutrition, we have registered dietitians who specialize in eating disorders. We are located in Columbia, MO and Rochester, MN, but you don’t necessarily have to come in-person. We can also provide meal therapy over video.
Both the client and the dietitian bring their own meal and eat together, either at the table in the Bamboo Nutrition office, or at a table over video. There may be moments to decrease stress or set an intention before beginning to eat. The registered dietitian may redirect behaviors while eating. If the client is struggling emotionally or with ED thoughts, the dietitian may help walk you through these thoughts and remind you of specific skills to try and uses these skills with you. After the meal is finished, we may take a moment to process how it went and/or make a plan for how to spend your time after a meal to avoid post-meal ED behaviors.
Our dietitians at Bamboo Nutrition have all provided meal therapy in a higher level of care setting and are able to help train your loved ones on how to best support you at home. If you or your loved one would like to work with one of our dietitians at Bamboo Nutrition, click the button below to be directed to our contact page.