Study Finds Binging Is The Most Common Eating Disorder

A survey publsihed in Biological Psychiatry's February issue shows that more people suffer from binging than any other eating disorder. The results, published by Harvard, studied a group of 2,900 men and women.

Aside from this finding, researchers also found that women are two times more likely to have an eating disorder and that eating disorders were higher among the young.

The survey results showed that 0.6 percent of participants suffered from anorexia, 1 percent suffered from bulimia and 2.8 percent suffered from binge eating. For a long time, most people did not view excessive eating as an actual disorder. However, that is now widely accepted as an actual disorder.

Although the researchers for this study had a set amount of food consumed in a specific amount of time, to be part of the definition of binging, most people have binged at least once (though maybe up to those specifications). Today, many people binge as a result of a hectic daily schedule that does not afford people the time to feed themselves when their bodies are hungry. People who have jobs or who have multiple commitments on a daily basis are likely to binge.

Binging could be something like not eating anything all day, and then coming home from work and eating everything. It could also mean limiting what you eat for a whole week because you are dieting and then eating a bunch of fast food and desserts on the weekend.

In addition, many people use dietary supplement bars or energy bars to help them get through the day because they do not have time to pack a lunch or maybe even to stop working to buy a lunch. The bars do little to provide the variety of nutrients people need on a daily basis and instead satisfy our bodies for the time being, but we still end up hungrier by the end of the day because we have deprived ourselves earlier.