eating disorders and asperger's

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Yes, I was just thinking that whereas one aspie/autie might spend years working on a car, or a collection, or a computer program, or some other highly complex/complicated project, another might put just as much intense effort into exploring and optimising their bodily functioning, including their brain, through diet, ( or exercise ), and that it's only if it becomes life-threatening that it needs to be seen as a disorder, ( and almost any "special interest" could be life-threatening if taken to the extreme ).

I think that orthorexia, ( if not perhaps anorexia or bulimia ), in people on the spectrum may be nothing more than a "special interest", with the intensity of attention and anxiety and frustration which any project might inspire, especially in an aspie/autie, when come to a standstill or seem unable to resolve an issue. A very rewarding puzzle..

And times when think that may if not exactly have to start over but certainly change one's approach, may look more dangerously or unhealthily obsessive when it relates to one's diet and one's body and mental health, than if it were a model village with trains etc in the basement, but there is in fact no difference.

... I'm not even sure that an aspie/autie into computer programs, a collection of x, y, z, or an expert on defunct languages is likely to be more detached about their interest than someone into diet, simply because it's not their body they're investigating/tinkering with.

And I think that any sufficiently complex "puzzle"/system when examined, explored, and experimented with in enough detail, in enough depth, teaches lessons about everything in life, about oneself, one's relationship to the world, as in "the whole world in a grain of sand".

PS. I'm suddenly wondering whether Bratman, ex-orthorexic, ( evangelical about alternative health and the powers of diet ) and for the last 14 years a passionate sceptic, contributor to/creator of "Anti-quack" sites, ( esp scathing about chiropractors ), might be somewhere on/near the spectrum.
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Maybe this is where a "special interest" in diet gets dangerous, when it is combined with low-self-esteem, as buryuntime said, ( whether it is about "weight" or some other aspect of "self" ), when the goal is based on wanting a "different self".

That is where most of my own anxiety and occasionally driven behaviour around diet comes from; when I believe that I should be more x, y, z mentally, that if only I could hit on exactly the right combination of foods I would be much more creative, active, able, etc.

That might be where the focus on one's own body risks becoming a problem. The aspie/autie building the perfect model village with trains does not, I suppose, imagine that if they build it absolutely right they will become a better person ... ?

... Is it possible to have a "special interest" in diet without being/becoming unhealthily invested in the outcome, simply because the "project" is in a sense "oneself"?
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I was diagnosed with anorexia five years ago, and it was through seeing someone for that that the possibility of ASD came up, and personally I can relate to the ASD side much most than the ED. I think there is definitely a risk factor linked to obsessive thinking/routine- when I was a teenager I became obsessed with dieting and since I've always been very routined, it was relatively easy to lose weight and it linked into my daily routines anyway, and now its hard to break. I tend to take things literally so when I read about 'diet rules', I seem to internalize them and they become part of my daily routine as well. I think it was the routine side of ED that appealed to me more than anything. When I was at school, I couldn't figure out why people thought I was weird or what I was doing to annoy them, and for some reason thought that it was to do with my weight (I've always been self-conscious about that), so I thought that if I lost weight, it would be easier to make friends, which I think was one of the contributing factors.

I've been getting treatment for an eating disorder for years. I would skip meals, sometimes for days as I was too engrossed in what I was doing. Then when I did eat I couldn't control it and would eat until I felt really, really, sick. Then I'd starve myself out of guilt. And the cycle went on.

I was completely obsessed with food and weight. Weighing myself constantly, thinking about food constantly. It was a nightmare.

Now I have an eating schedule from the hospital which has restored order to the chaos. It's not about eating particular foods or anything, it's about eating regularly. My specialist says it's better to eat McDonald's than to miss a meal.