Food addiction

Bulimia nervosa is characterized by cycles of bingeing and purging. Bulimia nervosa usually begins early in adolescence when young women attempt restrictive diets, fail, and react by binge eating. In response to the binges, patients purge by vomiting or by taking laxatives, diet pills, or drugs to reduce fluids. Patients may also revert to severe dieting, which cycles back to bingeing if the patient does not go on to become anorexic. Eating binges prior to purging average about 1,000 calories, but intake during a binge can be as high as 20,000 or as low as 100 calories. Patients diagnosed with bulimia average about 14 episodes of binge-purging per week. People with bulimia that does not progress to anorexia have a normal to high-normal body weight, but it may fluctuate by more than 10 pounds because of the binge-purge cycle. Compulsive Overeating may not involve purging in the same way as bulimia, but is equaly damaging in terms of physical and mental health.

How common is it?

It is particularly common in young women, although more men are now being diagnosed with eating disorders of one form or another. Many sufferers also have other forms of addiction.

How do I know if I have it?

One of the most bewildering symptom of eating disorders is the distorted body image. Although people typically associate distorted body image with severe anorexia, one study indicated that distortion is even more likely in people with bulimia. They were more likely to overestimate their size, and there was a greater disparity between what they wanted to look like and what they believed they looked like than in people with anorexia or with no eating disorders. In another study, people with anorexia tended to have an accurate perception of their upper body, but overestimated the size of their abdominal and pelvic area.

How do people develop it?

There is no single cause for eating disorders. All are rooted in emotions, however, which are read more