Binge eating turns out to be an eating disorder. Yep, it is buddies with anorexia and bulimia in the eating disorder clique. I was surfing through Wikipedia when I came across the article on binge eating. It turns out that binge eating is the most common eating disorder in the United States, affecting 5.4% of all Americans. Which is pretty overwhelming considering the fact that that’s about 8.4 million people in the US alone grappling with the disorder, if you factor in population data. I wonder how many people worldwide suffer from this?
And of course here I am, typing away at my keyboard with an extra-large pack of my favorite chips in front of me. Which I managed to devour and finish in the midst of scanning through RSS feeds and reading the local online newspaper.
As with all eating disorders, binge eating is attributed to a myriad of factors. Usually you may come across 'low self-esteem' or permutations of the term if you read up on the topic. Which can be a pretty tough can of worms to crack, as a host of many other factors can lead to a low self image (think: experiences from your childhood to the present). Of course mainstream mass media has a big hand in this as well - just watch MTV for 10 minutes or flip through a popular glossy and you'd be bombarded with images of stick-thin, cosmetically (or digitally) enhanced 'models'. Now think about growing up with this kind of exposure day in and day out. Being subtly coerced into ascribing to this fake kind of standard is definitely not good for anyone's self image.
(now I am tempted to rant on the evils of unabashed materialism and the created compulsive need to buy buy buy in order to ascribe to its superficial standard of beauty...but I'll have to save that for later)
I am guilty of compulsive eating - that is, eating when not really hungry, or eating beyond what is normally considered the adequate amount to make me feel full. Sometimes I just forget that I am eating (that happens when I am multitasking). Most of the time though I find myself resorting to gastronomic self-indulgence whenever I am feeling bored, anxious or depressed. It's a quick fix to get over that rut, even if common sense dictates that in the long term it will do more harm than good.
Compulsive eating is still different from binge eating, though. The Weight Control Information Network considers serious binge eaters as those who "often eat an unusually large amount of food and feel their eating is out of control". A few other markers that may make you a binge eater includes:
- Eating much more quickly than usual during binge episodes.
- Eating until you are uncomfortably full.
- Eating large amounts of food even when you're not really hungry.
- Eating alone because you're embarrassed about the amount of food you eat.
- Feeling disgusted, depressed, or guilty after overeating.
So I'm guessing I'm just about borderline. How about you? Are you a binge eater or not?
March 20, 2010 at 9:55 AM
Thanks the author for article. The main thing do not forget about users, and continue in the same spirit.
March 22, 2010 at 8:22 AM
The subject is fully clear but why does the text lack clarity? But in general your blog is great.