[Wild Fragaria]

Found this quite interesting.  Makes me feel like I should watch out the amount of food I ingest   I particularly find Craighead, the name quite amusing

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/02/22/VS.binge.eating/index.html

(CNN) -- For Natalie, it started in high school. She had always been a hearty eater, but increasingly, when life got stressful, she turned to food for comfort.

At first it was relatively harmless, she says, but in college, as her life pressures grew, her habit escalated to a full-fledged eating disorder called binge eating.

"I would maybe eat lunch with friends and eat a normal-size lunch," she says. "And then after lunch, when the people would leave, I would go and get more food and I would eat until I was very full or just couldn't eat any more."

Natalie, who doesn't want her last name used, remembers one of her biggest binges: two pints of ice cream and then "a sleeve of Ritz crackers with peanut butter, Triscuits, some cheese from the refrigerator, maybe some cream cheese straight out of the carton, maybe some mayonnaise right out of the jar."

While many of us overeat but never reach this extreme, doctors are becoming alarmed at the number of Americans who are becoming binge eaters. Binge eating has now become America's most common eating disorder, affecting one in 35 women, making it three times as common as anorexia nervosa, according to new research.

Doctors are also starting to understand how easy it can be to go from overeating to binge eating. (Are you a compulsive overeater? Answer Overeaters Anonymous' questions.external link )

"There can be a very fine line, and it can be very easy to cross," says psychologist Linda Craighead, author of "The Appetite Awareness Handbook."
From overeating to binge eating

Natalie says that in the beginning, she never knew she had a problem. "I just thought I had a big appetite," she says. "I've always loved food."

That's a fairly typical beginning for an eating disorder.

"Many individuals really like food, and like to pig out sometimes. They do that and they're not distressed about it," says Craighead, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Emory University. "But someone with binge-eating disorder, whenever they lose this control, they feel really bad afterwards."

Another hallmark of binge eating is secretiveness. Natalie says her eating was "sneaky." She binged in private and even went so far as to buy small amounts of food at different stores, so no one would see her buying huge amounts. She burned the extra calories by exercising excessively.

Eventually she couldn't keep it a secret anymore. In college, about five days a week she would binge and pass out, exhausted from the eating. She had to drop out of school. "It was like a feeling of being drunk. That kind of passing out," she says. "I thought I was going to die. I just thought, 'I'm really killing myself.' "
Why people binge

Natalie -- and experts on binge eating -- say food becomes an addiction, like alcohol or drugs. While using her chosen drug, Natalie felt a high. She said it distracted her from the problems in her life. "I was binging every day and it was a way that I was coping with the stress of school," she says.

The eating is a way to numb feelings, Craighead says. "The person is feeling bad and eating allows them to kind of temporarily tune that out," she says. "I call it the magician's trick: If you create a diversion -- which is the eating -- then you won't have to feel the feelings." (Interactive: What you can do if you think you might be a binge eater. )

Another cause of binging is compensating for a severe diet, experts say.

"When people are binging, it usually means that the rest of the time they're trying to eat really super healthy and so they get this psychological deprivation," says Craighead. "When you eat only broccoli, then when you binge, you're gonna go for something that you've been denying yourself."
Overcoming binge eating

When binge eaters come to see Craighead, one of the first things she tells them is to eat every few hours, so they won't feel deprived and go on a binge.

"We really insist that they eat breakfast, that they eat lunch, that they eat a midafternoon snack, and people surprise themselves that when they do that shift in their schedule, they actually feel less pressure to binge," she says.

Eating on a schedule helped Natalie, as did joining a support group.

Now 31, Natalie is a teacher and hasn't been on a binge in seven months. She still remembers the days when she felt alone. "I just thought something was wrong with me," she says. "I didn't know there was help, or that this actually existed as a disorder."

[IceFire]

Interesting article...I've found that its not the undergrad life but the working life where I've got to watch more about what I'm eating.  Less active than when I was a student purely because I sit at a desk or attend meetings all day long so movement is somewhat less than walking/running to class.

The other thing to adjust to is, at least for me, about 15/16 was when I would have cravings for things and eat allot.  I think its just one of those developmental stages where your body needs as much food energy as possible.  Now I don't need to eat as much but I'd like to sometimes   Self restraint is holding me back!

The one thing is that humans fundamentally are meant to just eat as much as possible when the eating is good because in a more natural scenario food is not plentiful and you eat as much as possible when you can because you may not be able to for a while.  But in the western world the food is plentiful...so its a bit of a problem.

[Wild Fragaria]

I love food and I eat a lot.  People are always amazed when they see how much I eat.  I don't think I am eating any less now, than when I was a teenager.  I enjoy food and making food.  Ask anyone who has tried my french toast and you'll probably wanna try some

[aldo_14]

I love food and I eat a lot.  People are always amazed when they see how much I eat.  I don't think I am eating any less now, than when I was a teenager.  I enjoy food and making food.  Ask anyone who has tried my french toast and you'll probably wanna try some

Indeed.

And then convert half the kitchen to smoke trying to repeat it.......

[IceFire]

I love food and I eat a lot.  People are always amazed when they see how much I eat.  I don't think I am eating any less now, than when I was a teenager.  I enjoy food and making food.  Ask anyone who has tried my french toast and you'll probably wanna try some

All depends on what you're eating too ...and if its good stuff but you're eating allot then its just a matter of what you're body is used to.  I have a friend who works out constantly...he probably overdoes it but he eats like a horse because his metabolism is through the roof.  He'll order two dinners and is still thinner than I am...which is basically not possible

[Wild Fragaria]

I suppose having high metabolic rate does help burning the extra calories away.  I've been told I 'burn' like a radiator when I sleep at night (I don't feel the heat though)    I eat a lot, as much as a 6 feet tall, 200lbs man will eat.  I particularly like ice cream and big cheesey lamby moussaka (& lagsana) 

[Getter Robo G]

you've seen my picture, I'm just ...Balder  ... And I eat like that and little to no exercise.

I'd tell AL he can come over, but I'm not sharing my Oncorr Dinner, he has to bring his own!


Personally I think they need to develop a sex addiction! Think about it a sec ( ) Sex never caused cholesterol, sex never blocked an artery (unless you do that bondage thing), sex never makes you gain a dress size (unless you're not on the pill or forget to wrap that rascal)...

So do I have any converts??? 

"Say NO to Pro-Anna, say YES to Ba-nana!!!  (insert dancing Banana gif HERE!)

[aldo_14]

I suppose having high metabolic rate does help burning the extra calories away.  I've been told I 'burn' like a radiator when I sleep at night (I don't feel the heat though)    I eat a lot, as much as a 6 feet tall, 200lbs man will eat.  I particularly like ice cream and big cheesey lamby moussaka (& lagsana) 

Oooh, toasty

[IceFire]

you've seen my picture, I'm just ...Balder  ... And I eat like that and little to no exercise.

I'd tell AL he can come over, but I'm not sharing my Oncorr Dinner, he has to bring his own!


Personally I think they need to develop a sex addiction! Think about it a sec ( ) Sex never caused cholesterol, sex never blocked an artery (unless you do that bondage thing), sex never makes you gain a dress size (unless you're not on the pill or forget to wrap that rascal)...

So do I have any converts??? 

"Say NO to Pro-Anna, say YES to Ba-nana!!!  (insert dancing Banana gif HERE!)

I would say that 99% of people already have an addiction to sex.  Thats not really a problem

[Wild Fragaria]

I would say that 99% of people already have an addiction to sex.  Thats not really a problem

Any statistical report on that? 

BY the way, you have not posted your picture on the picture thread

[aldo_14]

you've seen my picture, I'm just ...Balder  ... And I eat like that and little to no exercise.

I'd tell AL he can come over, but I'm not sharing my Oncorr Dinner, he has to bring his own!


Personally I think they need to develop a sex addiction! Think about it a sec ( ) Sex never caused cholesterol, sex never blocked an artery (unless you do that bondage thing), sex never makes you gain a dress size (unless you're not on the pill or forget to wrap that rascal)...

So do I have any converts??? 

"Say NO to Pro-Anna, say YES to Ba-nana!!!  (insert dancing Banana gif HERE!)

I would say that 99% of people already have an addiction to sex.  Thats not really a problem

It's one of the few cases where going cold turkey is more regular than servicing the addiction....

[IceFire]

I would say that 99% of people already have an addiction to sex.  Thats not really a problem

Any statistical report on that? 

BY the way, you have not posted your picture on the picture thread

I have no stats on that...BUT...I imagine it to be true as there IS 6 billion of us on the planet.  We seem to have no problem with procreation.

Finding a picture of me requires finding one without some ridiculous grin on my face

[aldo_14]

Finding a picture of me requires finding one without some ridiculous grin on my face

Welcome to my world

[Wild Fragaria]

Interesting hypothesis -- the human sexual behavior by Icy.   Field study is probably required

Well, I can tell you if you have cheesey grin in the picture if you send it to me first before you post it

[IceFire]

Finding a picture of me requires finding one without some ridiculous grin on my face

Welcome to my world

Yeah I'm looking through all of my digital camera shots from the last year ...and geeze...not a single one I like of me.  And there's only 4-5 to choose from because I'm always the one taking the pictures!

[Wild Fragaria]

Welcome to my world, I am always the one who takes pictures of others   So is that mean you will still put one of them up... for me (please please please...) 

[aldo_14]

Welcome to my world, I am always the one who takes pictures of others   So is that mean you will still put one of them up... for me (please please please...) 

Well, I'll take pictures of you if you want.........

[IceFire]

Welcome to my world, I am always the one who takes pictures of others   So is that mean you will still put one of them up... for me (please please please...) 

Have a look in the OMGZ PICTURES thread...thats the best I can find...in 2 years of shots. And its still ridiculous because I was very excited to be sitting in a sports car I'll never be able to afford and would consider impractical if I could

[Wild Fragaria]

You're awsome Icy  *big hug*  You have a very big happy grin

[Stealth]

Doctors are also starting to understand how easy it can be to go from overeating to binge eating. (Are you a compulsive overeater? Answer Overeaters Anonymous' questions.external link )

that confused me