Living a healthy life involves eating healthy foods. However some people develop eating habits that are not healthy or proper for the natural functioning of the body. Eating disorders are types of unhealthy conditions or illnesses where most patients have a need to control what they eat in order to control their lives.
There are different types of eating disorders like binge eating, anorexia nervosa, and bulimia nervosa. Each of these disorders can be controlled and prevented, especially if detected early; therefore it is crucial to observe early signs in order to avoid developing of these illnesses and maintain healthy eating habits which will eventually enhance healthy living.
Binge Eating
Binge eating involves overeating of huge amounts of different types of foods while feeling unable to stop in order to cope with negative emotions such as stress or loneliness. This makes the sufferer feel much worse afterwards. This disorder is more common than anorexia or bulimia and affects many men as well as women.
Anorexia Nervosa
Anorexia nervosa is just the opposite of binge eating. In this, the person avoids eating due to his or her obsession of being thin and the desire to maintain an unrealistically thin shape. With this disorder the desire to become thin or lose weight becomes very important to the person suffering from the illness and they lose the ability to see themselves for who they truly are. Its key factors include an abnormal body image, fear of gaining weight, and refusing to reach or maintain a healthy body weight.
Bulimia Nervosa
People suffering from bulimia nervosa keep alternating between binge eating and anorexia nervosa. They first give in to binge eating and then start taking drastic measures to avoid gaining weight. They have this continuous fight within themselves between the desire to binge (or the compulsion to overeat) and the desire to lose weight. In the process of binge eating a person can consume between 3,000 to 5,000 calories in just an hour and afterwards anxiety sets in and he or she starts taking frantic methods to reverse the binge eating through induced vomiting by use of drugs or going for long mile run.
