What
Causes Binge Eating?
Does strict dieting increase a person’s chances of developing a binge eating
problem or other abnormal eating behaviors?
These are the questions being asked by many top researchers of our day.
And, soon, we hope to know more about why so many of us today are
struggling with binge eating problems.
Is it possible that a personal history of restrictive dieting could
set us up for an eating disorder like Bulimia or Binge Eating Disorder?
Read on and consider what we’ve learned from the past. You
may be amazed, as were we, by some of the similarities in behaviors
among people who have had semi-starvation imposed upon them, and
people with binge eating disorders.
Reports
of Abnormal Eating After
Food Limitation Date Far Back
Dating
back centuries, there are medical and historical documents describing
abnormal eating behaviors in men, women and children after they
experienced a period of limited food intake or semi-starvation.
These people had been marooned during expeditions, had lived through
wartime food shortages, or had been imprisoned in an enemy camp.
Even after food was plentiful again and for a long time after their
semi-starvation experience, many of these people reported a persistent
obsession with food, rapid and voracious eating patterns, lack of
control and distress about how much they ate, complaints of still
feeling hungry despite huge meals, scavenging, stealing, hiding
and hoarding food, and persistent binge eating despite feeling uncomfortable
and ill.
Then, Post World War II, a handful of research scientists set up
semi-starvation studies in their laboratories. In their "controlled"
semi-starvation studies, would these modern day scientists see the
same kinds of abnormal eating behaviors as had been reported in
the past? (The most famous of the modern day studies took place
at the University of Minnesota in 1945. For six months, a group
of men ages 20-33 ate only 1570 calories a day. Note…That’s
more calories than many people eat when they go on a self-imposed
diet today. Another study took place at UCLA in the early 1960s.)
What
Did the Scientists Find?
Even
long after the starvation periods ended and food was plentiful again,
many of the men exhibited abnormal eating behaviors. Included among
those behaviors were: rapid and frantic eating patterns accompanied
by distress and a lack of control over food intake, secrecy, eating
in isolation, cravings and preferences for carbohydrates, fats and
sweets. Some people reported hoarding food, manipulating others
for food, and mixing strange food concoctions. These behaviors,
borne out of a laboratory experiment, turned out to be similar to
the behaviors documented in historical accounts of people who had
experienced a actual period of limited food intake during their
lives. (Don’t these behaviors sound remarkably similar to those
of people struggling with bulimia and binge eating disorder?)
Body
Image Disturbances and Purging
When
the young men in the semi-starvation studies started to regain the
weight they had lost, some began to obsess about the size of their
abdomen, thighs and buttocks. They developed a concern about becoming "flabby" and "pudgy". (Prior to the study, they
had not experienced anxiety about their body shape or weight.) One
man in each University study reported vomiting after binge eating
on junk food. One said he vomited after suffering a "complete
loss of willpower". He said he ate several cookies, a sack
of popcorn and two over ripe bananas before he could "regain
control" of himself. One man said he purged because he wanted
to feel better. The other said he wanted to relieve his emotional
distress after overeating.
All
of the behaviors described above do look amazingly similar to behaviors
we see today in women and men who have one of the binge eating disorders
(bulimia, binge eating disorder or the binge/purge type of anorexia).
This phenomenon caught the attention of psychobiologist, Mary Hagan,
Ph.D.
Dr. Hagan became interested in the possible implications these semi-starvation
studies might have on the understanding and treatment of binge eating
disorders today. Could dieting actually have impact on the onset
and perpetuation of these binge eating disorders?
Are Today's Researchers Not Asking
the Right Questions… or Are People
Too Ashamed to Tell Us What They
Actually Do During a Binge?
In
1997, not aware of any recent studies that provided detailed descriptions
of the behaviors of binge eaters, Dr. Hagan designed and administered
a new survey called the "SSABS©: Semi-Starvation Associated
Behavior Scale". The first people to fill out this survey were
college students. (See Sample questions below)
The results were significant. According to Dr. Hagan, 48% of the
college students who participated in her study met the proposed
diagnostic criteria for Binge Eating Disorder (DSM-IV). Among these
students, abnormal eating behaviors were surprisingly more common
and frequent than previously realized and were significantly associated
with "dieting".
The
New Scale Is Being Tested
At The Acoria Center
Dr.
Hagan's next step was to administer a similar survey to a clinical
population, people who have been diagnosed with an eating disorder.
Our Acoria Eating Disorders Treatment Center participated in the
study design and has been the test site for this new binge eating
scale. Our plan is to publish the results as soon as they are available.
Until that day, we will continue to wonder about the possible cause
and effect connection between dieting and binge eating behaviors?
You
will also have opportunity to
contribute to this new body of research
For
the purposes of data collection only, a version of Dr. Hagan’s
survey may be available on the A WEIGH OUT website as early as this
spring. If you’d like to fill out this survey and contribute
to a better understanding of binge eating patterns and behaviors,
please check back with us then.
If you’d like to learn more about your own eating behaviors
and body image, please feel free to take the A
WEIGH OUT Self-Test for emotional eating and binge eating.
