More Americans are "Binge Eaters" Rather Than Bulimics or Anorexics
Anorexia and bulimia may get all the publicity, but the most common eating disorder in the United States is binge eating.
Binge eating is uncontrolled eating that occurs at least once a week. Afterwards people usually compensate for their binge by dieting, fasting, using laxatives or "exercising it off."
Researchers at Harvard University Medical School and McLean Psychiatric Hospital interviewed 9,000 people all over the United States about their eating habits and mental health. They found that 3.5% of women and 2% of men are binge eaters. Their disorder tends to last more than eight years. It puts them at a higher risk for obesity and diseases like stroke, heart attack, and diabetes.
All three eating disorders are more common among young people ages 18 to 29, and especially among people who were anxious and depressed.
About 1.5% of men and 0.5% of men suffer from bulimia or vomiting to control one's weight. Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that can cause people to diet until they are starving to death. The researchers found that it affects less than l% of American women and only 0.3% of men.
This study appears in the February issue of Biological Psychiatry.
Binge eating is uncontrolled eating that occurs at least once a week. Afterwards people usually compensate for their binge by dieting, fasting, using laxatives or "exercising it off."
Researchers at Harvard University Medical School and McLean Psychiatric Hospital interviewed 9,000 people all over the United States about their eating habits and mental health. They found that 3.5% of women and 2% of men are binge eaters. Their disorder tends to last more than eight years. It puts them at a higher risk for obesity and diseases like stroke, heart attack, and diabetes.
All three eating disorders are more common among young people ages 18 to 29, and especially among people who were anxious and depressed.
About 1.5% of men and 0.5% of men suffer from bulimia or vomiting to control one's weight. Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that can cause people to diet until they are starving to death. The researchers found that it affects less than l% of American women and only 0.3% of men.
This study appears in the February issue of Biological Psychiatry.
Labels: anorexia, binge eating, bulimia
posted by EatingDisordersHelpGuide at 10:00 AM
1 Comments:
It is easy to blame the parents for everything that's wrong with people with binge eating.So. Lets first get it out of the way by doing just that.Then: the other factors. The media and particularly the talk shows that tell people its o'kay to be fat."You have a right to look and feel the way you like dear" type of shows which do enoromous harm to countless youngsters.Does any one comprehend the astronomical costs in later life from being just a little bit too over indulgent with one's self?
Good grief!! Listen to the researchers at the Harvard.
And God's sake exercise a degree of self-control!This is the only body you got!I am not a simpleton and I do believe that there are complex psycho-biological factors invoved. Having said that, let us not go psychologising or go to the MD's loking for a magic cure.I read it some place " The best way to lose weight is to walk the farthest distance with the heaviest weight for the longest time."
Then probably there would be no time for putting a label on your- self as a 'Binge eater'or some thing else that becomes fashionable with each revision of the DSM of the APA.
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