I just read an article in the LA Times about the research being done on binge eating. It never fails around the holidays that the media does tons of articles about weight, obesity and how to improve your health. Even though I feel a bit bombarded with the information, I don’t have an issue with it. Most overweight people like to read things about health because they are always trying to improve (a fact A LOT of people don’t get). However, sometimes the way the media and medical community approach and state things… really ticks me off.
The article was exploring the possibility of binge eating being a psychiatric disorder. Now if you are a fat person, you know that eating, whether you’re binging or not, is a mental thing. What morbidly obese person eats only when they are hungry? What really upset me about the article is that in all the quotes from the medical professionals or the bold statements from the author, no one said anything about addiction. There was no reference to food being an addictive disorder.
Now there are a lot of obese people who do not binge eat. In fact when you hear about binge eating it is usually associated with Bulimia. Both Bulimia and overeating are addictions to food and the effect food has on your body. I won’t go into all the in and outs of food addition but I think it’s a shame that binge eaters, and overweight people who read the article will come away with the fact they not only are overweight, now they are psychotic.
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-binge23-2009nov23,0,2869829.story?page=1
