Binge eating tops list of most common eating disorders
11:53 a.m. Friday, February 2, 2007
While anorexia and bulimia are well-known diet problems, a new survey suggests frequent binge eating is actually the country's most common eating disorder.
Researchers at Harvard's Medical School and McLean Psychiatric Hospital say the study is the first national census of eating disorders.
Their findings show 3.5 percent of women and 2 percent of men suffer from binge eating, which is defined as bouts of uncontrolled eating that occur at least twice a week.
2 percent of men and more than 3 percent of women said they had been binge eaters at one time. This is 3 to 5 times more common than anorexia or bulimia.
Binge eating is similar to bulimia, where people frequently eat a lot of food in a short amount of time. But unlike bulimia, binge eaters do not purge the food after they consume it.
Researchers say fewer people had bouts with anorexia or bulimia.
Dr. Harrison Pope, a study author, says a binge eater might follow up a full dinner with a quart of ice cream and a bag of chips, without being able to stop. Binge eaters overeat regularly, but they often feel guilty about their eating and try to hide it from others. As a result, Pope says binge eaters are at severe risk of obesity-related diseases.
The average person in the study struggled with binge eating for more than eight years, bringing extra weight and extra health problems.
Researchers hope that, now that binge eating is known to be so common, more people will be able to seek treatment.
The findings appear in the medical journal Biological Psychiatry.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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