Question: "Where does disordered eating behavior end and eating disorder begin?".
Answer: "The transition is fluid, but not arbitrary."
In healthy eating behavior, food intake is primarily regulated by hunger and satiety mechanisms. Eating, therefore, largely supports health, energy, vitality, and a zest for life. It can bring pleasure, generate joy, keep us energized for work, and help us maintain social connections. Healthy eating is rhythmically integrated into the daily routine and aligns with our physiological and socio-psychological requirements, supporting the maintenance of homeostasis. However, the more disturbed our eating behavior becomes, the greater its potential to bring about anxiety and other mental discomforts (such as guilt and shame, stress and frustration, self-consciousness, and even obsession or preoccupation), thus disrupting not only our social connections but also our interactions with food-related environments.
We refer to disturbed eating behavior when the mechanisms mentioned above stop functioning. An eating disorder is strictly defined as a condition where excessive focus on food and one's own body disrupts emotional, social, and physical well-being.