Information About Binge Eating

Binge Eating Disorder is a disorder in which people use food to satisfy a variety of emotions in order to cope with them. People may binge when they experience any negative emotion, such as anger, sadness, or depression. Another reason a person may binge is shear boredom. People have used food as a coping mechanism for so long that now that it is a habit to turn and use food to make them feel better. People do not know how to deal with their “life” anymore without food.

Binge Eating Disorder is a type of eating disorder characterized by sustained binge eating to excess followed by periods of guilt and disgust. Unlike bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder does not include periods of purging.
The disease is supposedly prevalent among 1-5% of the population. This disease affects women slightly more than men (60%-40%). Additionally, people with binge eating disorder can be of normal or over weight. Other characteristics include:

1. Feeling out of control with eating behavior

2. Eating when not hungry

3. Eating in secret

Binge eaters are always overweight because of the high calories they consumed. And because of the extra fats carried in their bodies, binge eaters will normally cause heart disease, diabetes, and a number of other medical conditions. There are some cases whereby a binge eater tried to control weight by eating non-stop for an entire day and spend the next few days starving himself - or herself.

Binge eating, Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are all considered eating disorders because they involve unhealthy patterns of eating. People with bulimia nervosa (sometimes called binge-purge syndrome) binge on food and then vomit or use laxatives to avoid gaining weight. They may also fast (stop eating for a while) or compulsively exercise after an eating binge. All three of these eating disorders involve unhealthy eating patterns that begin gradually and build to the point where a person feels unable to control them.

As in other eating disorders, in binge-eating disorder people are often overly focused on and unhappy with their weight, body shape and appearance. People with binge-eating disorder often feel miserable about their lives and are at higher risk of serious health complications than are those without the disorder. Certain behaviors and emotional problems are more common in people with binge eating disorder.

Be better prepared before you go for next binge-eating:

* It helps to figure out what you could eat, the so-called forbidden foods and still maintain your weight. It is important that you do not feel you have to deprive yourself of your favourite so that you will never feel a real need to overindulge or binge to compensate for it.

* Fill yourself up with low-fat or healthy foods whenever you feel like binge-eating.

As depression is largely absent in the case of compulsive eating, it is considered less dangerous than binge eating, since it has a reduced chance of turning into bulimia. However, compulsive overeating can gradually turn into a binge eating disorder if you become affected emotionally and psychologically about your body shape and weight.The causes for both forms of eating disorders are similar, however, Both are emotional or psychological in nature. Just like smoking, it is not the body that craves the cigarette, but the mind.