NOVEMBER 2008, VOL 88, NO 5 • AORN JOURNAL •807 mericans have a love affair with food—plain and simple. We think about it, read magazines about it, watch television shows about how to prepare it, watch other television shows about how to grow it, count its calories, and worry about who might not have enough of it. We even build shrines to it. Consider the display for the world’s largest potato chip at the World Potato Expo in Blackfoot, Idaho, or the golden arches that rise above the American highway landscape every three to four miles. We need food to survive and to thrive, and our bodies require consistent nourishment in order to function properly. When psychological needs or stress are not managed in an effective manner, however, food can take a maladaptive place in a person’s life. “Comfort foods”—those types of hot, gooey, calorie-laden foods that usually are introduced to us by an early caregiver—bring comfort in the face of duress. While temporarily effective to ease stress, using food as a coping mechanism in the long term does not address the underlying problem and can lead to other problems such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, or hyperlipidemia. Although the hypothalamus controls the appetite in the brain, environment and culture can influence eating habits. For example, the preparation and eating of meals in many cultures is considered a social or family event, and a society may define how its members should look in relation to body shape and weight. Some societies, such as in the United States, tend to define the ideal body shape and weight as thin, although others across the globe have different perspectives. Regardless of cultural norms, the use of food to address stressful life events or psychological issues can lead to serious eating disorders. Patients with eating disorders must be treated with special considerations in the OR environment. This column explores the treatment of patients with the eating disorders anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, as well as those who are obese.