What is binge eating disorder?
Recent research at Harvard University suggests that frequent binge eating is the country’s most common eating disorder, far outpacing the better-known diet problems of anorexia and bulimia, and yet, the least likely to be diagnosed. It is strongly associated with obesity and risk of diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and certain cancers. It is defined as bouts of uncontrolled eating, well past the point of being full, at least twice a week.
Most of us have times when we feel that we overate, but simply eating a lot of food on certain occasions does not necessarily mean that you have binge eating disorder. Experts agree that binge eating involves eating an unusually large amount of food (someone else observing would agree that the amount was large) in a discrete period of time and feeling as though it is hard to control the eating behavior (i.e., it’s hard to stop even though you really want to). Binge eating: • People with binge eating disorder also have additional habits such as eating rapidly, past satiety or when not hungry, or alone. • They commonly feel distressed or bad after such an episode. People with binge eating disorder do not use purging behaviors on a regular basis, such as self-induced vomiting, laxatives, excessive exercise or fasting. This distinguishes binge eating from bulimia nervosa. Binge eating disorder is associated with more severe obesity, earlier onset of weight problems and dieting, more freque
