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Binge Eating Disorder
By Charles Sebastian
Anorexia, an eating disorder
brought on by lack of food intake
to lose weight or keep weight off, is
a well-known condition in today’s
America. Its close cousin, bulimia, has
its victims eliminate any food intake
before the body can process it and
turn it into calories and fat. Within
the realm of the previous two stands
Binge Eating Disorder. Binge eating
is characterized by phases of eating
large quantities of food without voluntary elimination. Many binge eaters
go through cycles, where they will
gain weight by increasing consumption, only to be followed with starving the body for weight loss. This
yo-yo effect can wear the body down
over the years and create disease.
Binge eating, as a type of obesity and
disorder, accounts for approximately
1-4 percent of U.S. citizens.
Those who have learned to binge
eat, will often do so when stress
increases in life, whether real or perceived. Many will eat voraciously,
even when not hungry; they may eat
alone, so they will not have witnesses
to their overeating; they may eat
quickly; they may eat way past full;
and they usually have a strong feeling
of being out of control when acting
out.
Like most addictions, the byproducts of binge eating can be
rough. Potential problems include
Type 2 diabetes, heart disease,
skeletal problems, high cholesterol,
high blood pressure, and gallbladder
disease. Binge eating will often be
accompanied by anxiety and depression, and eating cycles can be tracked
with mood cycles related to being
depressed or anxious. Women tend to
be affected by this disorder more than
men, accounting for around 60 percent of the affected population.
This disorder can be a bit elusive,
in that it is not always the obese and
morbidly obese suffering from it.
Many people who binge eat can be
normal looking, possibly maintaining a correct weight for themselves
on some doctor’s chart. However, it
happens often that a binge eater with
a fast metabolism will overeat and
tax the system or eat too much of the
wrong thing. Many years of eating
high-fat foods alone can lead to heart
trouble and eating too much sugar
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can lead to diabetes. These things can
happen without the person gaining a
pound.
When dealing with Binge Eating
Disorder, there is the obvious issue
of physical food intake, but of equal,
perhaps greater import is the body
image one holds of themselves in
their own mind. Through many
influences and variables, we all talk
ourselves into how we feel about
our bodies. From the perspective of
health and longevity, one must ask
how these patterns of thinking affect
our overall well being.
While most psychotherapy has
dealt with anxiety and depression through Cognitive-Behavioral
Therapy (CBT), recent research
shows that mindfulness training can
be equally effective. The study of
215 people affected with anxiety and
depression, which was carried out at
Lund University in Sweden earlier
this year, shows that mindfulness and
maintaining awareness has a huge
role to play in anxiety and depression. These being the root cause
and biggest instigator of most eating
disorders, they must be addressed
for health and wellness first above all
things.
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