Does Sam Winchester have an eating disorder?
I’ve had a bit of a hiatus there guys sorry but I’m back. I’ve been watching SPN in my down time to get inspiration. And I noticed something a little bit disturbing.
Now we all know Sam is a health nut, he works out, and a majority of his diet consists of lean greens. Sometimes, but very rarely does he join Dean and have a burger. And I’m going to estimate that since most of the time Sam and Dean are cooped up and spend most of their time on a hunt, or are always delving into 80 dusty tomes researching. That Sam and Dean eat two meals a day and fill the rest of their time with snacks.
I’m not a medical expert, but I’m going to use my handy ol’ human bio and my years of fitness knowledge be my guide. So let’s say Sam has two salads that day, depending on the salad the calorie count (let’s just say Cobb salad for this example.) is about 352 calories per serving and let’s say per meal he has two servings. So that totals a daily calorie count of 1408. Including snacks, (Idk, a few spoonful’s of peanut butter which is 190 calories) but let’s add three beers, adding 180 calories each, (I averaged beer calories, because they drink several types of beer in the show) for good measure putting him at 2138 calories.
But have you ever noticed that Dean is always the one who is snacking. Whenever they’re on the road or a hunt and there is some snacky type food laying around it is always Dean gnawing away. So assuming Sam doesn’t eat any of Dean’s snacks, or maybe has a small bite doesn’t really amount to much.
Sam canonically is 6’6” and weighs 190lbs, so his BMI sits right at 22 which is in the healthy range.
But it doesn’t seem to really add up. Sam and Dean are fairly active, they’re always out and around chasing down whatever monster seems to be standing in their way. Plus Sam works out a fair amount, so he should be ingesting a good hearty portions every day. Men with an active life style need to take in 2800-3000 calories. And going by Sam’s over activeness I’d say he’s on the upper end of that scale.
Impossible retention of muscle mass aside, Sam in no way is anorexic, he doesn’t forcefully starve himself. And he isn’t Bulimic he doesn’t compulsively eat and then purge. What Sam does do is chide his brother on his eating habits, and takes the ‘superior’ road eating heathy and exorcising. He abstains from sweets and gets disgusted with Dean when he indulges.
Sam is an Orthorexic. Orthorexia Nervosa is a condition where people are obsessed with the healthy way of living, and they take it to the extreme. To abridge, they never eat sweets and when they do they constantly chew themselves out, same goes for other unhealthy food. They isolate themselves socially in order to stay away from the bad influences other people might have on their choices.
He really doesn’t have a choice because he constantly hangs with Dean but the constant goading Sam gives his brother on his eating habits says something.
Now I would be blind not to see that Dean does eat a lot of greasy gross crap coated in god knows what. But nutritionally a burger holds the necessary fuel for Dean to do his job. It has more fat, protein and depending what he puts on it, such as lettuce or onions. The burger wins out on a longer lasting and more effective food against a measly salad.
Also orthorexics tend to have symptoms related to OCD they show compulsive behavior. Unfortunately I cannot get ahold of the DSM criteria for this disorder. But their eating habits, in reference to normality fall between a 4 and 40 in the ORTO-15 test which is another diagnostic tool. Essentially they’re highly sensitive when it comes to their eating behavior. Which Sam is, if his constant complaining to Dean is anything to go by.
And have you noticed Sam does most of the shopping, people with this disorder are very very picky when it comes to shopping. Sam usually gets Dean what he wants, but he usually gets his own healthier version. Like in the gas station in season 7 when they were out looking for Leviathan!Sam And Leviathan!Dean. Sam got Dean some ding dongs knock off, and he got protein bars for himself.
Some people with this disorder are constantly concerned with perfection. It may be a stretch, but Sam has always hated his life on the road. Wanting a normal life, that wasn’t impoverished and unstable. He dreams of a normal life, and in the life he has, one of the only constants he has is food. We all remember the episode where Dean made spaghettios and, he changed his mind and wanted lucky charms, and Dean gave in letting his little brother eat what he wanted. Sam, as far as we know got to eat mostly, what he wanted.
I can’t say the same for Dean but to be on point. Sam was able to control for the most part, what he ate. Which gives me the impression Sam isn’t being healthy because it is the right thing to do to live to a ripe old age. Sam is doing this to distance himself from John and Dean. The health wall is there to keep him separate, so he can be his own entity.
Because like I have stated in my other meta about Dean having dependent personality disorder. Dean is a John clone minus a few key differences.
And what was huge piece of Sam that was prevalent especially in the earlier seasons? Oh, he didn’t want to be like John.
To conclude, Sam has an eating disorder not because he has a crazy obsession with his physical appearance. Sam has an eating disorder because he more than anything does not want to be like his father.
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