Eating Disorders
New Trend Encourages Young Women to Starve Themselves, Then Binge Drink
Drunkorexia: It’s a bizarre new term that describes a life-threatening eating disorder more young adult women are exhibiting. The behavior involves girls refusing food and then consuming large amounts of alcohol in order to get an alcoholic "buzz" more quickly and conserve the calories the alcohol brings.
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Anorexia May Provide Sense of Belonging
Anorexia nervosa often ensnares women into a pattern of recovery and relapse, making it difficult for individuals suffering from the eating disorder to maintain healthy eating habits after completing treatment. Anorexia is the most deadly of the various types of eating disorders and has the highest mortality rate of any mental disorder, including depression and schizophrenia.
Dieting Book for Children Causes Controversy
The childhood obesity problem has caused many eating disorder experts to caution parents about proper guidelines for implementing healthy changes. Instead of talking about dieting, losing weight and counting calories, say experts, the focus should be on getting more active, eating healthy and improving general well-being.
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Family Meals Encourage Healthy Eating
Many families are on the run, stopping at a drive-thru between soccer practice and piano lessons. Other families may leave a pot on the stove, but it’s up to each person to grab their food and head off to different corners of the house to settle in front of their favorite TV show.
Spring Births May Increase Chances of Developing Anorexia
A new study has found that anorexia nervosa, a serious eating disorder that can result in death, is more common among people born in spring months. Researchers from Oxford University said their study, the largest to date, provides clear evidence of a “season of birth” effect in anorexia.
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Women with Anorexia Nervosa More Likely to Have Unwanted Pregnancies
A new study has found that women with anorexia nervosa are more likely to have unplanned pregnancies and induced abortions than women who don’t have the eating disorder. The results suggest that this could be partly due to the fact that many women with anorexia mistakenly believe that they can’t get pregnant because they may experience irregular periods or may not menstruate at all.
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Binge Eating to Be Added to Mental Disorders Manual
In two hours or less, do you eat an amount of food that is significantly larger than most people would consume in the same time and under similar circumstances? Do you eat until uncomfortably full, and more rapidly than most people would, at least once a week, for a minimum of three months? Do you feel disgusted, depressed, or guilty once you stop?
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Are We Over Our Obsession to Be Thin?
By Suzanne Kane
Rail-thin, fashionably thin, skinny, lithe, or slender – these adjectives describe how many girls and women would like to see themselves. We, as women (and men), never want to think of ourselves as fat – even if the mirror somehow tells us otherwise. In fact, our desire to be thin, or to be considered thin, has often led us to engage in unhealthy eating behavior. Not everyone who desires to lose a few pounds, however, is guilty of obsessing over weight. It’s just that the ideal body weight and image for women, especially, is unrealistically portrayed in media, which makes it difficult for us to reconcile the reality of what we are with what we think we should be. That, coupled with underlying psychological issues and/or genetic factors, may put us at risk for an eating disorder.
Who’s to Blame for Anorexia?
Painfully thin, emaciated, starving – these words come to mind when looking at photographs of malnourished children in third-world countries. But they’re not the only ones suffering – and they’re not suffering by choice. Anorexia, or specifically, anorexia nervosa, a mental disorder manifesting itself as an eating disorder, involves deliberate choice to avoid food, an obsessive fear of weight gain and a constant pursuit of thinness. And it seems most prevalent in Western countries, specifically America. But where did this obsession start and, more important, who is to blame for anorexia?
Eating Disorders and Alcoholism
In recent years, studies have shown that almost half of those who have an eating disorder also regularly abuse drugs or alcohol. Approximately 35% of people who abuse drugs or alcohol also have an eating disorder. This trend is particularly common in young teenage girls, so parents should take note of this in case they are ever faced with either problem.
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