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Dating back centuries, there are medical and historical documents describing abnormal eating behaviors in men, women and children after they experienced a period of limited food intake or semi-starvation.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.
