Anderson Cooper.....who is the disordered eater?

I have admired Anderson Cooper for years now - ever since he was a host on the show The Mole. Ok, let's be honest, I thought he was hot, so it made me watch the show. But, then I discovered he was not only a reality TV host, but actually quite a respected CNN news reporter. The fact that he is a Vanderbilt is an added bonus.

I have watched him throughout the years. Recently when Hurricane Irene came roaring up the East Coast, I watched him report from NYC. I learned more that morning about hurricanes than I had my entire life. I actually commented to my husband that if Anderson Cooper had been my math and science teacher, I probably would have gone much farther!

So, you can imagine how thrilled I was to hear that he was starting a daily talk show. I have been lucky enough to catch it a couple of times. One of those shows was titled: Anderson's Food Intervention where he discussed the peculiar diets some people (himself included) have. There were two ladies on the show who pretty much live on potatoes, or some form of potato.

The true tragedy for me was to discover that Anderson Cooper himself has an issue with food. He was told it's not an "eating disorder", but rather he has "disordered eating". As in, he really could care less about food and would be just as happy drinking a protein drink for every meal.

What?

He showed us the interior of his fridge which was pretty much filled with some pop and some sausages. He said he only had the sausages since it was the only thing he knew how to cook. Good thing he's rich!

Anderson Cooper went on to say that since he does have to eat, there are only certain things he will eat - about 4 things I believe. Egg whites, some dinner from the Boston Market, those sausages, and something else I can't remember. He does not like vegetables and had never had spinach.

I don't understand how he made it through his childhood never being forced to eat spinach - or something like that.

I have two childhood memories of being forced to eat food. One good, one not so good. My mom likes liver. Liver still makes me throw up in my mouth a little. I have a memory of sitting at the dinner table with the gross slab of liver on my plate and a huge mound of ketchup. I was not allowed to leave the supper table and go to my soccer game until that darn liver was cleaned off my plate. It still makes me want to cry, and no I still don't like liver.

On the other hand, we had a British lady who used to help look after us and she liked Brussel sprouts. It was much the same scenario - me crying at the table and her telling me I had to finish them. She did tell me that if I ate them often enough I would grow to like them. As it turns out, I now love Brussel sprouts.

(by the way, it's not like the Brussel sprouts were better prepared. Both the liver and the Brussel sprouts were nasty. But, I learned to bake Brussel sprouts and they're super yummy like that).

The point is, I think it's important to be open to trying new foods. To give Anderson Cooper credit, he did eat spinach on this show for the first time. Hated it, but he did eat it.

Here's where I was dumbfounded during this show. I *got* that his food issues were weird. I mean, being so picky - that's weird, right? But, then he went on to ask the therapist: well, what about those people who spend all their lives thinking about food? I know people who are either planning what to eat, eating, or thinking about what they just ate.

Well, the therapist said that's also a form of disordered eating.

What? I'm a disordered eater? I thought that was normal. What on earth do the rest of you do with all the hours in the day if you're not thinking about food?????

The therapist said that "these people" use this mechanism to block unpleasant thoughts. They think about food instead about worrying about bigger problems.

And the problem with that would be?????

*by the way, I just ate a pizza on an Ezekiel flatbread with leftover roast, onion confit and some sharp cheddar. I followed it with some yummy chocolate and a cup of tea. Supper I'm not sure of yet, but you can bet I'm thinking about it!!!*