Filed in archive Digestive Health by Florence Cardinal on February 22, 2007

Are you a binge eater? I think we all are, from time to time. Mood has a lot to do with it. Your feeling blue, so you eat a couple of chocolates and then a couple more, and a couple more, until, suddenly, the entire box is gone.

But binge eating can get out of hand, as in the sad story in today's New York Tines Health section. The story starts out by telling us that:

This month, researchers at Harvard published a survey finding that binge eating is by far the most common eating disorder, occurring in 1 in 35 adults, or 2.8 percent - almost twice the combined rate for anorexia (0.6 percent) and bulimia (1 percent).

Yet unlike the other two, binge-eating disorder is still not considered a formal diagnosis by the American Psychiatric Association.

Why is this? Read the story and you'll be asking yourself why, too. The Food Museum Blog has an excellent description of binge eating:

People who suffer from binge eating disorder often consume large amounts of food within short time periods uncontrollably, eat quickly and even though they are not hungry, eat alone out of embarrassment over the amount they eat, feel distressed over the amount consumed, and have such episodes two days a week for at least six months.

Unlike people with bulimia who purge after a binge, binge eaters eat until they ares so stuffed they are miserable. All that bingeing can add huge amounts of weight and destroy the digestive system. Mun's Fitness Blog lists these possible complications of binge eating:

Diabetes

High blood pressure

High cholesterol levels

Gallbladder disease

Heart disease

If you are a binge eater and it's becoming a health hazard, talk to your doctor. It's a disorder that's almost impossible to control on your own.

Related Entries:

Overcome binge eating - 16 September 2006
Fight eating disorders - with jewelry - 03 October 2006
Dieters Should Watch Out for Eating Disorders - 20 October 2006
Eating Disorders - 12 February 2007

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Tags: eating disorders binge eating disorder bulimia diabetes heart disease weight high blood pressure hea

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Vote for Binge Eating:

Currently 6.33/10
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Rating: 6.33 out of 3 vote(s) cast.

Response from: Lovedove89 (09/27/09 12:10pm)

I'm nineteen years old and for almost my entire life its seems as if I've been overeating. As a child I was always over weight because i would over eat until my stomach would hurt. In middle school there were many incidences where my classmates would make fun of me because of my appearance. Thats when I decided I needed to loose weight and after nine months I lost sixty pounds and became anerexic. I wouldn't eat anything my dad feared for my life and because I loved school so much he thrented that if I wouldnt eat he wasn't going to let me go to school anymore. So thats when i began eating again. After awhile I started to re devlop all the bad eating habits form my childhood. I put on thirty pounds. I tried to go on various diets with no excercise. I started this plan where I would only eat cereral and fruit. So I would loose weight. I lost weight but my depression leveled increased. Whenever I would get stressed I would turn to food. Eat tell I felt sick and diet until i felt sad again and binged. It's been almost four months where I've been binging almost three four times a week. I put more then ten pounds. The most important constant in my life is my education, I'm in college and my grades are slipping. I know I'm a very smart girl I can over come any obstacle that comes my way. But I've seem to hit a wall. I cannot overcome my depression, I feel its triggered when I'm around my parents all the time. They dont understand my feelings and desires and always question everything I do. I feel if they weren't constatly On my mind I could relax and live my life on my own terms.I want to leave home but I feel if I do they'll just get upset and I need thier support to be successful in pursuing my goals.