are you anorexic?

Are you an alcoholic? Oh, oops, sorry, I thought we were playing let’s-ask-random-people-we-just-met-super-personal-questions.

Yep, the other day, I met a random woman in the conference room on our floor. And she asked me if I was anorexic because I didn’t want to eat vegetables. I guess if you were to look up anorexia in her dictionary, the definition would be failure to eat vegetables. I’m used to people telling me that I’m too thin. As a matter of fact, one of my friends told me just that a couple of weeks ago. She used her doctorly tone of voice on me (she’s a new grad), so I knew that she wasn’t kidding. I think I’m too thin. But I’ve always been thin. I’m used to it. And I eat so much junk food that I’m surprised I’m still thin. But I’ve never had anyone ask me if I’m anorexic. Not even a doctor. Does thin = anorexic now? Thanks a lot, Nicole Richie. Has it become acceptable to ask people such things? Oh yeah, well, why yes, yes I am anorexic. I’m glad you noticed. It’s the in thing, you know. I guess I’m not really that offended, just a little taken aback. I’m sure people are always thinking that I’m anorexic when they see me. I just never had anyone ask before.

And really, I would love to be just a little meatier. Then I would finally fit my size XXS or 00 or petite XS clothes and not look like a little girl trying to play dress up in her mom’s clothes. It would probably also help with the whole getting taken seriously thing. And maybe, then everybody and their mom would stop telling me to eat more. Because I eat a lot! The ironic thing is that I’ve been trying to be healthier by cutting out my one-a-day soda and five-servings-a-day chips. Maybe I lost weight because of my efforts because my clothes fit even worse now than they did before and I got asked if I’m anorexic. Sorry, I just can’t help it that I’m skinny. Just like some people can’t help being fat. So please don’t judge me or presume that I have an eating disorder.

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1. now eat your veggies, even if i don’t eat mineIf only that were a feasible thing to do. Apparently it’s not. A recent study showed that a taste for meat and fish is inherited while that for vegetables and desserts is not, suggesting that children’s dislike of vegetables may be more the result of their parents dislike for them than that of genetics. Now that sure seems like a convenient explanation—let’s blame parents for their kids’ low-veggies-high-sweets diets. I happen to be one of those people who absolutely hate vegetables. My parents didn’t really like vegetables either, but they forced themselves to eat them anyway. And I even ate some vegetables when I was younger. But for most of my adult life, I did not eat vegetables (I say this in the past tense because I’m now working very hard to incorporate veggies into my super carnivore diet). I quickly perfected my picking-every-single-tiny-bit-of-vegetable-out-of-everything-I-eat skills (I called it surgical training). What’s more, there were certain vegetables that would “contaminate” my food so much so that picking them out did not make that dish edible for me. My number one enemy: cilantro. Once there is even so much as a microscopic amount of cilantro in my food, I cannot eat it, no matter what because the food tastes like cilantro even if the cilantro is removed. It really does and I can’t stand it. It’s the same with other vegetables that have been mixed in with my meat. I’ll pick them out, but the meat tastes like the vegetable even though...
2. don’t eat if you want to ace that test!I'm bad.  I don't eat breakfast.  Ever.  Well, except when someone forces me to, which only rarely happens and is usually accompanied by regret.  I know that breakfast is supposedly "the most important meal of the day," but I just don't like eating in the morning.  Doing so just makes me feel all blah and unproductive.  I also don't like to eat before exams.  So if I have a final at 8am, I don't go out of my way to eat beforehand.  Nope.  I just wake up, take the final, then eat afterwards.  Worked pretty well in undergrad because most of my finals were at 8am.  But in med school, things were different.  Some of my finals were in the afternoon.  Which meant that I had to eat some time before the final since I couldn't possibly starve myself until 4pm (which is when 1pm finals usually end).  And I always hated those afternoon exams without really knowing why.  Now because of this study that suggests that being hungry actually affects the hippocampus (the area of the brain associated with memory and learning among other things) in mice, I wonder if I didn't like those afternoon exams because I couldn't go into them slightly hungry.  This study (if it's true in humans) explains why I don't like eating in the morning or before exams: because not eating keeps me sharper.  Wow.  I never knew that not eating before exams was my secret.  Shh.  Don't go telling everyone now. ...

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