Binge eating

Binge eating is a pattern of disordered eatingwhich consists of episodes of uncontrollable overeating. It is somtimes as a symptom of Binge eating disorder. During such binges, a person rapidly consumes an excessive amount of food, typically sweet high-calorie foods of a soft texture, such as ice creamor cookies. Most people who have eating binges try to hide this behaviour from others. They often feel ashamed or depressed about their overeating. Eating binges can be followed by so-called compensatory behaviour, acts by which the person tries to compensate for the effects of overeating. Examples of such acts are induced vomiting, fasting, and heavy exercising.

Although people who do not have any mental disordermay occasionally experience episodes of overeating, frequent binge eating is often a symptom of an eating disorder. Binge eating is a central feature of bulimia nervosaand binge eating disorder. It is also practiced by some people with an eating disorder not otherwise specifiedor anorexia nervosa.

See also

• Binge eating disorder
• Overeating

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binge+eating Wikipedia article Binge eating.