Email This Story

Binge eating growing trend

Feb. 8, 2007

Photo illustration by Melea Burke Jim Marsh, director of counseling services at Baylor, said between 4 and 5 percent of students seeking counseling have an eating disorder.

By KIRSTEN HORNE
Reporter

In a society where it seems as though thin is always in, why are so many Americans finding themselves wandering toward the kitchen?

In the first national study done of individual eating disorders, researchers at McLean Hospital, a psychiatric facility of Harvard Medical School, found that binge eating is more prevalent among Americans than anorexia and bulimia.

"I am not the least bit surprised that binge eating is so prevalent among Americans," said Dawn Montaner, founder and executive director of Lifelines Foundations for Eating Disorders.

Montaner said many people tend to overlook binge eating as a problem because the slimming effects of anorexia and bulimia are more visually obvious than those of binge eating. People tend to categorize binge eaters as simply being overweight.

The study shows that binge eating actually affects 3.5 percent of women and 2 percent of men at some point in their lives. By contrast, only 0.9 percent of women and 0.3 percent of men suffer from anorexia and 1.5 percent of women and 0.5 percent of men report having suffered from bulimia.

"I see it in a lot of high school and college kids, including Baylor," Montaner said. "Many of them are stressed about starting college or studying for exams and feel the pressure from their parents. This pressure and stress can sometimes lead them to this continuous eating of food."

Jim Marsh, director of counseling services at Baylor, said between 4 and 5 percent of students seeking counseling are coming for help with an eating disorder.

"That is only about 25 students per year," Marsh said. "However, this doesn't mean that it isn't a problem on campus, because I think it is. This is just the average number of students we see for this problem each year."

Montaner said Baylor is "very much" about appearance.

"I think that kids are almost getting a mixed message about what their appearance should be like," she said. "They hear that thin is so beautiful, but with all the stress and anxiety that they feel at school, food is the emotional scapegoat."

Cynthia Wall, a staff psychologist at the Baylor Counseling Center, said food is used as an unhealthy way to cope with emotional distress or psychological problems.

"Food is used to calm and soothe oneself, to give oneself pleasure, to express feelings, to shut oneself down emotionally," Wall said.

The study calls for further research as to why recovering from anorexia and bulimia is actually easier than recovering from binge eating.

"I think this may be because people suffering from anorexia and bulimia are more likely to be treated than those suffering from binge eating," Montaner said. "Binge eating is so often brushed off as an overweight problem."

Wall said it's important to point out that there are different levels of severity of anorexia. Patients suffering from anorexia are often younger and may recover as they mature. Her hypothesis for why binge eating symptoms persist is that people are often ashamed to acknowledge their abnormal and often embarrassing eating habits.

It is also suggested that binge eating may be a link to the United States' issue with obesity.

"The study shows that the number of people who are binge eating is growing," Wall said. "If binge eating is a cause of obesity, then the number of people struggling with bingeing may be linked to obesity."

Montaner said binge eating, as a serious problem, is rarely acknowledged.

"It is a vicious cycle that Americans go through," she said. "They are suffering from stress, so they eat. Then they suffer from stress because they feel unattractive, unpopular and isolated.

"They know they are supposed to be healthy. They just feel a lack of control in their lives -- something many of us face in our lives at one time or another."

More News ...