A new food pathology, Arfid, turns 10: no to dishes depends on their smell or appearance or the fear of getting sick later. Hereditary in 8 out of ten cases.
They pass for "picky" at the table or, with a more respectful term, "selective." Of course, not that, there are more rejected dishes than accepted ones.
It is also a characteristic of childhood that then, little by little, widens its mesh to accommodate different foods, to enjoy new flavors hitherto neglected a priori. Once in your teens, the yes menu is usually much broader than the no menu.
But not for everyone. There are those who are still "picky", but in a way that since 2013 has been classified as an eating disorder, called Arfid. This "coding", sanctioned by the registration in the DSM-5, the international manual of psychiatry, is precisely recent. And now it turns out that among the eating-related psychiatric disorders this is the mosttransferable by inheritance. Even in 79% of cases.
Arfid and the two kinds of twins
This conclusion was reached by a study carried out by Dr. Lisa Dinkler of the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden using -as usual in research related to genetics- data from twins: both identical and fraternal. In the first case, the twins come from the same fertilized egg and the genes are therefore the same, for both, one hundred percent. In the case of two "siblings" who are born together, but from two different fertilized eggs, approximately half of the genes are common and the rest are "shaped" by environment, events, and life experiences.
The research is published in the journal Jama Psychiatry. Arfid is the acronym in English for Avoidant restrictive Food Intake Disorder, that is, avoidant/selective food intake disorder, and is expressed with the avoidance of eating, a kind of disinterest, lack of appetite, or exclusion of dishes based on its appearance, smell, taste, or even fear of having negative reactions after a meal such as vomiting, choking, allergic reactions. Dinkler specifies: "The prevalence of this pathology ranges from 1 to 5 percent of the population and is at least as widespread as autism and deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADH)."
Arfid is more widespread among children (boys)
The researcher used data from the “Swedish Child and Adolescent Twin Study” which aims to collect all the figures on the psychiatric health and the development of all twins born in the country since July 1, 1992. In the sector of children born between 1992 and 2010, around 34.000, 682 were identified with a diagnosis of Arfid whose consequences are not the same as those caused by anorexia nervosa, bulimia, or a body image disorder.
It has been shown that the prevalence is higher among men (2,4 percent) compared to women (1,6 percent). Problems caused by the "new" disease related to diet resulted in weight loss or lack of weight gain in 67,2 percent of cases, psychosocial difficulties in 50,6 percent, need for resorting to supplements or tube nutrition in 8,5 percent, finally due to 0,6 nutritional deficiency.
Arfid is inherited much more than anorexia or bulimia
By comparing the prevalence of Arfid among identical twins and fraternal twins with respect to their respective parents and close relatives, we have arrived at evidence of that remarkable 79 percent risk due to transmitted genetic factors. A figure much higher than that found in anorexia (48-74 percent), bulimia (55-61 percent), binge eating, so-called binge eating (39-57 percent). Such a high heritability rate, the Karolinska Institutet researchers point out, is on the same level as autism, schizophrenia and ADHD.
The comment of the psychiatrist and specialist in food science Stefano Erzegovezi was terse: “Since Arfid is a relatively “young” disorder (identified in 2013), its diagnostic limits are still uncertain at this time. In fact, they share symptoms common to very different ones, such as eating disorders, anxiety disorders and autism spectrum disorders. More research is needed, which is ongoing.