The Executive Director of the Bulimia Anorexia Nervosa Association says the numbers are staggering in a study that shows eating disorder hospitalizations among boys has increased 416 per cent over 17 years.
Luciana Rosu-Sieza is reacting to the Ontario study released Tuesday showing that the number of eating disorders among male children and teens has seen a shocking increase, despite the fact that typically the vast majority of which were girls.
While researchers found that number of female teenagers and high-school aged teenagers with eating disorders saw the largest increase in sheer numbers over the study period, the most surprising increases were among those once considered unlikely to have eating disorders: teenage boys and younger children aged 12-14 years old.
Rosu-Sieza says that locally, the Windsor-Essex region has seen these increases as well, but she feels that the increases have been presented as there is less stigma around the topic in today's day.
She says locally there has been an increase in boys and men facing eating disorders.
"It's kind of an interesting phenomenon because we do definitely see that males are impacted by social media and body image as well, and I think that in the past it seemed to be only for females, or people sort of associating it just with a female issue. But definitely males are susceptible to that, and I think that younger males as well."
She says Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) has become a local issue.
"It's more of a restrictive food intake diagnosis, and we've seen that in younger kids locally. And I have spoken to our Child and Youth partners and they've seen an increase in that as well where kids are very selective about food. And sometimes they do present at a lower weight, and they don't eat certain foods, or they have very strict food rules."
Rosu-Sieza adds that the food prices can play a large factor in eating disorders.
"Definitely inflation has played a role, and seeing that people need to figure out how to sustain a healthy diet, or a diet that makes sense with the idea that there isn't a lot of food options, and people going to food banks. So I definitely see that as an issue with young kids as well in terms of food security."
A statement provided by Dr. Joslyn Warwaruk, a physician at the Teen Health Centre, who works alongside BANA, states that teams at Windsor Essex Community Health Centre's Teen Health site treat eating disorders for youth ages 12-25 . They have been increasingly attending virtual meetings attended by other providers of eating disorders from across the province, in which it is being stated that there is an under diagnosed male population when it comes to eating disorders.
The statement also read that about 20 per cent of those facing eating disorders are males at the Teen Health Site, much higher than 10 years ago when it was only about five to 10 per cent male.
Dr. Warwaruk adds that orthorexia is very common in both sexes and often missed clinically. Orthorexia is an obsession with healthy eating with associated restrictive behaviours.
-with files from CTV News