26 incredible home remedies treat bulimia
Have you ever noticed any of your friends or relatives who happen to be highly conscious about weight gain, but still end up eating too much and not able to curb their cravings. He or she might be influenced by a severe eating disorder known as bulimia. People affected from bulimia are mostly the ones who can’t control their craving to eat plenty of food in a short duration but once done, they try different methods like vomiting to get rid of excess calories (1). It affects both men and women equally. Bulimia might develop into a person that is highly influenced by the culture and media presentations and definitions of a fit, healthy, and attractive body (2).
The most common symptoms of a bulimic person are eating disorders, over attentiveness towards fitness or being thin, taking up too many stimulants and laxatives to induce a bowel movement, and vomiting just after binge eating. Bulimia is harmful to the body and may lead to swelling in cheeks, decaying of tooth enamel, infertility, depression, constipation, an electrolyte imbalance that can be deadly. However, it is curable, and certain treatments for bulimia encompassing psychotherapy and medication have been proven effective. Nevertheless, bulimia is a disorder and not a disease. Therefore, you can try bulimia treatment at home. If you are suffering from bulimia and wondering about how to cure bulimia, then this amazing guide will fill the bill.
Home Remedies to Treat Bulimia
Are you strongly conscious about each and every pound after overeating? Do you want to control it with several throwing up methods that leave you with sore throats and teeth, harsh headaches, weak bodily function, a bit of guilt, nervousness, and depression? If yes, then besides medical treatments, you can avail a few effective given remedies at home for better health, all by yourself.
1. Probiotics
Well, recently there is so much hype about the good bacteria and the bad bacteria. You might be wondering whether the health benefits of the good bacteria is really worth the hype? Good Bacteria, also known as probiotics are tiny microorganisms that are believed to help in the digestion (3). In easy words, good bacteria are good for health, and the bad bacteria are bad for health.
Good bacteria or probiotics have been reported efficient to get rid of bloating and abdominal pain that are the common symptoms of bulimia. A bulimic person inadvertently extracts a good many numbers of probiotics, and thus, in that case, ingesting probiotics will aid your digestion. Greek yogurt, kefir, tempeh, miso, and kimchi contain a good amount of probiotics and are easily available throughout the market.
2. Orange Juice
Citrus fruits like oranges, grapefruit, lemons, and limes not only taste good but also serve a number of benefits to health. For many years, citrus foods have been used for medical purpose, around the globe. Recent studies show that citrus fruits are full of metabolites such as flavonoids, alkaloids, essential oils, and limonoids that are beneficial for health in more than one way (4).
Citrus fruits reduce the bad cholesterol, blood pressure, and also keep the cardiovascular diseases away. Bulimia influenced people often stay worried about excess weight gain, and a glass or orange juice daily will help them by high leaps.
3. Salmon
Certain species of fish and fish oils are considered the best source of omega-3 fatty acids. Salmon is full of two very important omega-3 fatty acids: DHA and EPA. High calorie and oily foods increase the level of blood fats known as triglycerides that are harmful to your heart and can lead to numerous cardiovascular diseases.
Omega-3 fatty acids lower the level of blood fat and keep your heart well-functional and healthy. Nutritional deficiencies in bulimia can be treated with salmon or halibut fish (5).
To cook salmon, heat up the broiler for 6-10 minutes to its high-temperature setting and place the fresh salmon fillets on it. Broil one side of the salmon fillet for 10-15 minute or until it gets brown. Repeat the same for the other side. Your salmon is now ready to serve. According to the taste, it can be seasoned with black pepper and salt.
4. Yoga
A person affected with bulimia often experiences physical as well as mental health issues. Certain expelling acts, including vomiting and excess use of laxatives induce terrible stress on the body. This process of removal often takes place in solitude, away from the crowd and that leads the victim to guilt and depression.
To get rid of bulimia completely, exemption of it, physically and mentally, is important. Yoga is a great way to boost your immunity, focus, peace of mind, self-esteem, mental, and physical health. Recent studies show that yoga is useful to cure bulimia as well as anorexia nervosa (6).
People who maintain a regular yoga regimen are more likely to control their cravings for excessive eating and feel less stressed. Yoga is also effective for flexibility, muscle & bone strength, heart, blood pressure, and nervous system. Some yogas can be done at home without the need of an instructor, but if you are new at it, then you might consider joining professional yoga classes.
5. Meditation and Mindful Eating
Meditation is a process to understand ourselves better, get rid of stress, frustration, and negative thoughts by inducing a positive sense of consciousness. From ancient times to modern and throughout various religions, meditation has been used to achieve inner peace.
On the other hand, mindfulness is a process to be aware of what we are doing and why? Recent research in this field shows that introducing mindfulness in eating can be beneficial in reducing eating disorders like BED (7). If you are suffering from bulimia, then you might experience a sudden craving to eat. Practicing meditation and mindfulness will help you gain control over your actions and regulate them accordingly.
6. Develop Self-Love Emotional Self-Care
Studies show that 56% women and 43% men are not satisfied with their bodies (8). This dissatisfaction develops when one compares one’s body to someone that seems to be fitter than oneself. This feeling of imperfection lowers the confidence and self-esteem. Self-care is a good and important way to achieve overall emotional well-being (9). Understanding the importance of physical and mental health, and to bypass the triggers of overeating is an excellent way to get a healthy mind, body, and lifestyle.
Instead of getting ashamed of your body, you need to tell yourself that you are perfect and should avoid anything that can destroy your health. In other words, understanding that you are the only one responsible for taking care of your own health is an essential approach to achieve absolute physical and emotional health.
7. Get Social
A bulimic usually tends to perform his clean-up activities like vomiting in solitude, away from friends, relatives or colleagues. Thus, people affected with bulimia nervosa are less likely to be social (10).
This isolation deepens over time and broadens the gap between a bulimic and the society, which ultimately leads to loneliness, low self-esteem, and depression. Indulging with your friends and family, sharing your problems with them, and asking for support is a crucial and important step to curing bulimia. Your health is important to the people who are close to you, and even a little emotional support from them can bring your eating habits back on track.
8. Supervised Regular Physical Activity
Along with glut eating and vomiting, excessive exercising is another threatening symptom of a person affected with bulimia. According to a few studies, most bulimic people are of normal weight, but plagued with a disorder called binge eating. Due to low self-imagery and self-esteem, some of the bulimic people find excessive exercising to be a way to get rid of excess calories.
No doubt, exercising is good for mind and body, but excessive exercising brings a great number of downsides with it. Experts believe that excessive exercise can put negative effects on your health like stress fractures, joint injuries, tendonitis, and irregular menstruation (11). The best solution for this is to join a gym under the supervision of a physical trainer.
9. Turmeric
Due to the act of vomiting, a patient of bulimia places a lot of pressure on the stomach and esophagus that may cause inflammation if repeated regularly, Turmeric can be used to soothe the inflammation since it is a proven anti-inflammatory agent and an efficient wound healer, as well (12). At the same time, it is also an excellent antioxidant, and antineoplastic and elevates the process of digestion. Take lukewarm milk in a cup, and add one tablespoon turmeric to it. Stir well and drink to get relief from esophagus inflammation.
10. Fennel Seeds
Fennel Seeds are not only easily available through the market but also elevate the taste of your food to the next level. Recently, fennel seeds have been found to be a miraculous food for all the dieters and overweight people out there.
The main problem that a bulimic faces is to control his craving for food when hungry. Fennel seeds have been found effective to curb the craving by lowering the amount of food intake by individuals (13). Being a good appetite controller, fennel seeds are also full of essential nutrients, fiber, vitamins, and flavonoid that help lower your cholesterol levels.
To prepare fennel seeds tea, crush 2-4 tablespoon seeds using a mortar and pestle. Fill a cup with hot water and add crushed fennel seeds to it and steep for 10-12 minutes. Strain, and your tea is ready.
11. Legumes
If you are conscious about your health and weight and want to lose weight naturally, then consider adding legumes to your daily diet. Legumes are great sources of fiber, zinc, iron, calcium, protein, and contain a relatively lower amount of fat ().
Cooking legumes is easy. You just need to soak one part of legume with four parts of water overnight. Strain and rinse the legume, and add them to a cooker with 3 parts of water. You can add salt, turmeric or other spices and herbs of choice. After a quick and mild stir, keep the flame on high till it gets to a boil. Lower the flame, and let it simmer for 45 minutes. Check if legume can easily be crushed by your fingers. If yes, then your healthy legume serving is ready.
12. Eat Salad Before Meals
If controlling the hunger feels almost impossible to you, then eating a plate of salad made from fresh veggies is a great way to lose weight (15). Eating salad 15 minutes before the meals will provide you with essential nutrition and lower your hunger too. According to your own choice, you can make either a vegetable salad or a fruit salad.
13. Cinnamon
Even a pinch of cinnamon adds a lot of flavor to your food. Besides its sizzling flavor, cinnamon is found effective in reducing blood sugar, blood cholesterol, triglycerides, and aids the competence of insulin (16). Add one-fourth teaspoon of cinnamon to your everyday meals, and you won’t have to worry about the high level of catastrophic blood cholesterol.
Cinnamon tea can be prepared by adding a teaspoon of dried cinnamon pieces to a pan containing one cup of hot water. Slowly boil the water on a low temperature for 30 minutes. Turn the heat off, and let it steep for 10-15 minutes to ensure all the extract of cinnamon properly released from the sticks. Your tea is ready to drink.
14. Flaxseed Oil
Recent medical research shows that flaxseeds and flaxseed oil are a great source of soluble fiber and possess cholesterol-lowering properties (17). Taking a teaspoon of flaxseed oil every day will keep your heart healthy, away from diseases, and also lower your hunger to a great deal.
Note: Avoid taking flaxseed directly that may cause constipation or may lead to diarrhea. The best way to take flaxseed is to take these with water.
15. Ginger
Using ginger for bulimia is associated with various benefits for health. Bulimic patients often struggle with their craving for food. Studies show that taking ginger in bulimia not only lowers the hunger but also has a significant effect on the rate of body burning calories (18). Therefore, this miraculous herb will aid you in your weight management campaign.
Apart from that, ginger is also used to treat nausea, muscle pain, morning sickness, higher levels of blood sugars, heart diseases, cholesterol, and Alzheimer’s disease. To make ginger tea, boil a cup of water in a pan. Add a freshly cut or grated ginger to it. After 5 minutes, add two tablespoons fresh lemon juice. Strain in a cup with the help of colander. Your aromatic ginger tea is now ready to drink.
16. Avoid Saturated Fats and Welcome Unsaturated Fats
Food items containing saturated fat might taste delicious at first, but your body does not welcome saturated fat that warmly. Saturated fats, if in an excess amount in your body, may become the root reason of various heart diseases and high level of harmful blood cholesterol (19).
Beef, pork, chicken meat, whole fat milk, cream, and packaged snacks, like potato chips, pizza, added sugar foods, and savory biscuits are the prime source of saturated fats. On the other hand, trans fats that are processed unsaturated fats, are as detrimental as saturated fat and should be avoided if you are on your way to losing pounds.
Unsaturated fats are tremendously beneficial for health since they reduce the risk of a cardiovascular heart disease and lower cholesterol levels (20). Also known as “good cholesterol,” saturated fats are rich in omega-3 fatty acids that help the body absorb vitamins, strengthen the bones, and keep the body energetic.
Salmon, sardines, blue-eye travella, eggs, walnuts, soybeans, and canola oil are great sources of omega-3 unsaturated fats. You can easily replace saturated food items with unsaturated ones without compromising the taste and with a green signal to your health.
17. Buttermilk
Patients with bulimia nervosa disorder often stay pestered about their weight gain whenever they are eating anything delicious. But, if something is delicious, then it doesn’t mean that it can’t be healthy at the same time. For a bulimic, buttermilk is a better option of full-fat milk. Studies show that daily consumption of buttermilk can reduce the cholesterol in the body (21). Apart from its great taste, buttermilk is a good calcium source that is good for digestion, soothes the stomach after acidity, keeps you hydrated, and is a better and yummier option of milk.
18. Sprouts
Sprouts have been called “superfood” due to being an excellent source of various essential vitamins, antioxidants, and amino acids (22). It won’t be an exaggeration if we call sprouts “a heaven for a dieter.” Sprouts are low in calories and rich in proteins and other nutrients. Eating sprouts on a daily basis will keep your stomach full, your hunger away, and your body and mind healthy.
To prepare moong bean sprouts at home, take half a cup of moong beans in a container and fill it with water. Cover the container and leave it overnight. Separate the moong bean sprouts next day with the help of a colander or a sieve. Instead of moong beans, you can use any other legume or a mix if you prefer so.
You might want to make a sprouts salad if you want to add more taste, flavor, and nutrition to your meal. Finely chop one onion, tomato, 20 grams coriander leaves, a green chili, and a boiled potato. Add all the chopped veggies along with the sprouts, black pepper, powder, and salt and mix well. Your healthy sprouts salad is all set to be served immediately.
19. Eat Slow and in Small Portions
Slow eating has a number of physical and mental benefits. Studies show that when you eat way too fast, then you might eat up more than your hunger (23). When you eat slow, you not only enjoy each and every bite of your food but also feel more satiated because your brain gets more time to send the signals of fullness to you.
Eating smaller but frequent portions is as important as eating slowly. It keeps you full throughout the day, and you won’t feel sudden pangs of hunger.
Herbal Remedies to Cure Bulimia
20. Alfalfa
Alfalfa, also known as medicago sativa, is considered for its stunning anti-inflammatory and antitoxic properties (24). Alfalfa is a great source of vitamins, minerals, and fiber and can be used to treat high fever, or to lower the allergies.
21. Valerian Roots
Anxiety is one of the most common symptoms of a person affected with bulimia. Over consciousness about the weight causes anxiety. Though there are several ways to cure anxiety, like getting a good sleep, exercising, and eating balanced and nutritious meals. Recent research highlights that anxiety can be taken care of by a high leap with the help of certain herbs. Valerian roots are proven to be highly beneficial in curing anxiety along with insomnia, and nervous restlessness (25).
To make Valerian roots tea at home, add 2-3 tablespoon of dried and powdered root to a cup full of warm water and let it steep for 15-25 minutes. Strain and enjoy.
22. Dandelion Root
Dandelion root is edible and is a rich source of vitamin A. Dandelion roots have been used to cure digestive problems (26) since ancient times . At the same time, dandelion roots are useful to treat inflammation, kidney diseases, spleen problems, and congestion of the liver. Thus, if you are suffering from bulimia, using dandelion roots as a digestive is worth a shot.
To make a tea of dandelion roots, add 80-120 grams of dried dandelion tea into boiled water. Let the root soak for half an hour and strain. Your dandelion tea is all set to please your taste buds. Repeat the same two times a day daily.
23. Gymnema
People suffering from bulimia try to throw up because they are worried about the amount of calorie they have taken after binge eating. Even after being conscious about weight gain, they find themselves unable to control the craving for food. If this is also the case with you. and you are looking for something that can aid you to control your food cravings, then don’t worry. Your search ends here.
Gymnema, also known as the miracle fruit, is a herb grown mostly in southern and central India. This miracle herb is beneficial to reduce the food craving and assists in weight loss and diet programs (27). Gymnema is also beneficial in weight loss, type-1 & 2 diabetes, and digestion. Research indicates that it also possesses diuretic and laxative properties.
24. Spinach
Increased weight and high amount of calorie intake are generally the main considerations and the reasons for throwing up by a person affected with bulimia. If you are affected with bulimia and want to cut down the calories from your daily intake, then making spinach a part of your daily diet will do the trick. Spinach is a good source of vitamin A and C.
Besides that, it provides a low-calorie diet enriched with essential minerals like calcium, iron, manganese, and magnesium (). Antioxidant compounds in spinach are useful to take care of harmful free radical. Spinach can be eaten raw or cooked.
Note: Make sure to use only ripe leaves of spinach.
25. Ginseng
Ginseng has been known for its exceptional medical properties for a long time. Bulimia patients not only suffer from physical complications but also from psychological problems like low self-esteem, emotional distress, and depression.
The best thing about ginseng is, it take cares of both the problems. Ginseng is reported to reduce bad cholesterol, reduce stress, and boosting overall health (29).
Apart from these hypnotic benefits, ginseng is also helpful for the heart, type-2-diabetes, and cancer patients. Ginseng is available in fresh, dried, and powdered from.
To make a tea from fresh ginseng root, boil two cups of water in a pan. Clean 20 grams of ginseng roots thoroughly with the fresh water. Slice the roots vertically and add them into the boiling water. Cook the mixture for two hours on a low flame. Strain and enjoy the tea. Follow the same process daily to get better results.
26. Aloe Vera
A person suffering from bulimia nervosa usually forces him/herself to vomit and other purging activities after eating. This unnatural throwing-up negatively impacts your gastrointestinal system and stretches the abdomen muscles that often cause bloating, one of the most common symptoms of the eating disorder bulimia (30).
Aloe vera alleviates the upset stomach and reduces the unpleasant muscle pain. Since your body fails to avail the important nutrition of food, aloe vera is a good way to elevate your next vitamin and mineral intake. Using aloe vera for bulimia will not only bail you out of excess cholesterol and blood sugar but also improve your digestion and reduce bloating.
To eat aloe vera, first cut the small needles off the leaf carefully with a knife. Cut the bottom leaf in 2-3 pieces. Slice the aloe vera leaf from middle and scoop the gel with a teaspoon.
Do’s
- Replace sugar-rich & oily foods with healthier foods like fruits, vegetables, and herbs.
- Drink a lot of water every day to lessen the cravings.
- Keep the health hazards of bulimia as well as benefits of healthy eating in mind, every time you eat.
- Ask your friends and family to help you in the process.
- Try to be physically active for 2.5-3.5 hours a week through moderate exercise.
- Eat slowly.
- Seek help from a professional or a doctor, if necessary.
- Promise yourself to follow your diet schedule properly from next time.
Don’ts
- Do not isolate yourself. Otherwise, you might end up throwing up again.
- Do not starve yourself or indulge in excessive exercise.
- Avoid weighing yourself very often.
- Avoid trying to vomit everything out, even if you have eaten a lot of food.
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