'I started restricting my food when I was eight': My ten-year battle with an eating disorder 

At the height of her illness, Niamh Jimenez reduced her food intake to under 500 calories a day. Now recovered, she examines the latest science and debunks some of the common myths surrounding eating disorders

Niamh Jimenez. Photograph Moya Nolan

I started restricting my food when I was eight. Hiding food in my cheeks and pockets and then dumping it in school bins, toilets, and an emergency box under my bed seemed logical, to ward off chaos. Slowly, it evolved into an elaborate game of self-punishment, the rules of which were: eat no more than 500 calories per day, 480 for bonus points — that’s the amount of calories in a share-size pack of Haribo Goldbears.

As isolated as I felt growing up with anorexia, I know now I was not alone. In Ireland, the National Clinical Programme for Eating Disorders (NCPED) estimates that 189,000 people will have an ED, with 1,757 new cases each year among those aged 10-49.