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Survey says…3 out of 4
American Women Have Disordered Eating
 A recent study reported that
65% of American women have disordered eating. As reported at ScienceDaily (April
22, 2008), researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and
Self Magazine found that 65% of women between the ages of 25 and 45 have some
type of disordered eating.
Also, it was found that
possibly as many as 10% of women reported symptoms consistent with eating
disorders such bulimia nervosa, anorexia and binge eating disorder. This
indicates that possibly as many as 75% of women in this survey may have
identified having some type of unhealthy thoughts, feelings or behaviors related
to food intake and their bodies.
Cynthia R. Bulik, Ph.D.,
William and Jeanne Jordan Distinguished Professor of Eating Disorders at the
University of North Carolina School of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry and
director of the UNC Eating Disorders program said, "Our survey found that these
behaviors cut across racial and ethnic lines and are not limited to any one
group." She also said that, "Women who identified their ethnic backgrounds as
Hispanic or Latina, white, black or African American and Asian, were all
represented among the women who reported unhealthy eating behaviors." She
concluded that it was very surprising, the unexpectedly high number of women who
engage in unhealthy activities such as purging. Dr. Bulik, who is also a
nutrition professor in the School of Public Health said "More than 31 percent of
women in the survey reported that in an attempt to lose weight they had induced
vomiting or had taken laxatives, diuretics or diet pills at some point in their
lives. Among these women, more than 50 percent engaged in purging activities at
least a few times a week, and many did so every day."
While many of the unhealthy
eating behaviors uncovered in the survey didn't necessarily mean that women were
eating in a way that would lead to potentially lethal consequences as when women
are anorexic or bulimic, but they did reported that the dysfunctional eating
behaviors probably were associated with emotional and physical distress. While
eating disorders are usually related to young women, this survey found that
women in their 30’s and 40’s also reported disordered eating at virtually the
same rates as younger women. Overall, the findings in the study indicated that:
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75% of women report
disordered eating behaviors or symptoms consistent with eating disorders; so
three out of four had an unhealthy relationship with food or their bodies
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67% of women (excluding those
with actual eating disorders) are trying to lose weight
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53% of dieters are already at
a healthy weight and are still trying to lose weight
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39% of women say concerns
about what they eat or weigh interfere with their happiness
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37% regularly skip meals to
try to lose weight
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27% would be "extremely
upset" if they gained just 5 pounds
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26% cut out entire food
groups
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16% have dieted on 1000
calories a day or fewer
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13% smoke to lose weight
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12% often eat when they're
not hungry; 49% sometimes do
Some of the eating habits that
women think are actually relatively healthy such as banishing carbohydrates,
extreme dieting, and skipping meals may actually be indications of this
disordered eating.
The results of this study were
derived from an online survey of 4,023 women who answered detailed questions
about their eating habits.
Bulik
and study co-author Lauren Reba-Harrelson, a third year clinical psychology
graduate student in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences, will give a presentation
about the survey and their collaboration with Self on May 17 at the Academy for
Eating Disorders’ 2008 International Conference on Eating Disorders in Seattle.
Adapted from University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2008, April 23). Three Out Of Four American Women
Have Disordered Eating, Survey Suggests.
ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 23, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com
/releases/2008/04/080422202514.htm
Additional Information and
webpage by
Paul Susic
MA Licensed
Psychologist Ph.D. Candidate
(Health and Geriatric Psychologist)
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