Eating disorders in Canadian athletes on the rise amid COVID-19
TORONTO
Corey Bellemore’s unhealthy thoughts around food began to creep in last year.
The Canadian middle-distance runner had always listened to his body’s signs of hunger, and had eaten a wellbalanced diet to fuel his training.
But at a broad-shouldered six foot three, Bellemore is bigger than many 1,500-metre runners and never felt he really belonged in the event, and so in a quest to become smaller he cut way back on his eating.
When he felt hungry, he’d have a nap instead of a snack. If dinner didn’t leave him full, he’d just go to bed early.
Studies have shown that feelings of helplessness and fear of loss of control are often at the centre of disordered eating, and so Bellemore can understand why, with COVID19 wiping out any sense of certainty in 2020, unhealthy eating is on the rise among Canadian athletes.
“Since you can only train at a certain level with whatever resources you have, at least if you’re dialed in on your nutrition — or you think you’re dialed in — at least you feel like you’re getting a gain,” Bellemore said. “But it might be an unhealthy behaviour that you just think is a gain.”
National organizations Game Plan and the Canadian Centre for Mental Health and Sport (CCMHS) have both seen significant increases in eating disorders in Olympic and Paralympic athletes since the global pandemic began.
“We saw increasing numbers throughout September and October, and then we saw a really big influx of referrals in November, and that has steadily continued,” said Poppy DesClouds, the director of care and education at CCMHS. “We saw about three times the referrals (in November) that we usually see in a month. So, that definitely was significant.”
DesClouds said there’s also been a significant uptick in the severity of concerns athletes are reporting.
“We had a sense that this would happen with the pandemic, but it didn’t happen right away,” she said. “And it seems like the wave was a little bit delayed, and it really started to hit this fall.”