Nearly 65 percent of young American women report experiencing disordered eating behaviors. Ten percent report symptoms of eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia, or binge eating disorder. These statistics are according to new study findings published in HealthDay News.
Over 4000 women participated in an online poll conducted by SELF Magazine in conjunction with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). The women’s ages ranged from 25 to 45.
These eating behaviors cut across racial and ethnic lines and were not limited to any one group. Women whose ethnic backgrounds were Hispanic or Latina, white, black or African American, and Asian were all represented among the women who reported unhealthy eating behaviors.
The most disturbing return was the unexpectedly high number of women who engage in unhealthy purging activities. More than 31 percent of women in the survey reported that in an attempt to lose weight, they have induced vomiting or had taken laxatives, diuretics or diet pills at some point in their lives. More that 50 percent of these women engaged in purging activities at least a few times a week and some reported doing so daily.
Eating habits such as skipping meals, avoiding carbohydrates and, in come cases, extreme dieting, were thought by some women to be normal. But the study finds that these habits may actually be signs of disordered eating. This behavior is often linked with emotional and physical distress.
There is widespread belief that eating disorders affect mostly young women, however the study found that a surprising number of women in their 30s and 40s had about the same rates of disordered eating as younger women.
Additional findings:
* 67 percent of the women are trying to lose weight.
* 53 percent of these dieters are already at a healthy weight.
* 39 percent of the women said concerns about what they eat or weigh interfere with happiness.
* 37 percent of women said they regularly skip meals.
* 27 percent said they’d be very upset if they gained five pounds.
* 26 percent have eliminated entire food groups from their diets.
* 16 percent have consumed only 1,000 calories per day.
* 13 percent smoke to lose weight.
* 12 percent often eat when they’re not hungry and 49 percent sometimes do.
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