When Body Image Becomes a Problem for Female Athletes

SOURCES:

Paula Quatromoni, DSc, registered dietitian; affiliate professor of diet and epidemiology, Boston University; chair, Department of Health Sciences, Boston University.

Kara Bazzi, co-founder and medical director, Opal: Food and Body Wisdom.

EY and espnW: “Where Will You Find Your Next Leader?”

The New York Times: “Gracie Gold’s Battle for Olympic Glory Ended in a Fight to Save Herself.”

Team USA: “While in Eating Disorder Recovery, Allie Ostrander Makes it to Steeplechase Final.”

The Telegraph: “Weight charts, ‘fat clubs’ and disordered eating: the hidden health crisis in women’s football.”

Frontiers in Psychiatry: “Body Dissatisfaction, Importance of Appearance, and Body Appreciation in Men and Women Over the Lifespan.”

National Eating Disorders Association: “Body Image & Eating Disorders”

EspnW: “Body Image Confidential.”

BBC: “BBC Elite British Sportswomen Survey Results.”

Sports Medicine – Open: “Reasons for and Consequences of Low Energy Availability in Female and Male Athletes: Social Environment, Adaptations, and Prevention.”

European Journal of Sport Science: “Eating problems in athletes: Overview of prevalence, threat elements and suggestions for prevention and therapy.”

Nutrients: “Self-Reported Restrictive Eating, Eating Disorders, Menstrual Dysfunction, and Injuries in Athletes Competing at Different Levels and Sports.”

Current Sports Medicine Reports: “2014 feminine athlete triad coalition consensus assertion on therapy and return to play of the feminine athlete triad.”

British Journal of Sports Medicine: “The IOC consensus assertion: past the Female Athlete Triad – Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S).”

International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism: “Low Energy Availability Is Difficult to Assess however Outcomes Have Large Impact on Bone Injury Rates in Elite Distance Athletes.”

JAMA Psychiatry: “Mortality Rates in Patients With Anorexia Nervosa and Other Eating Disorders.”