ABSTRACT
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• Recognize health consequences associated with eating disorders in children, adolescents, female athletes, and pregnant women
• Determine appropriate nutrition goals and therapies for eating disorders in children, adolescents, female athletes, and pregnant women
• Appreciate special nutrition needs that exist for children, adolescents, female athletes, and pregnant women
Long before Mary Lou Retton or Kerri Strug, Cathy Rigby was an elite, young Olympian gymnast who won a medal in 1968. She forever changed the course of gymnastics for the United States, but what America did not know was the struggle inside of a developing eating disorder. The same attributes that pushed her to success, including a strong work ethic, the quest for perfection, and a desire for absolute control, were also the attributes that posed a risk for the development of an eating disorder. She found herself in a sport that emphasized weight control and physical appearance, which also encouraged the development of an eating disorder. Add increasing tension at home because her father lost his job and became an alcoholic, and Cathy had brewing family dynamics that would lend itself to an emerging eating disorder.
