I hate my body: Binge eating often involves a dissatisfaction with
body image, unfortunately for many people who are bingeing they never
address the shame and low self esteem which is related to the eating
disorder. Living with this condition can occupy much of a person's
thoughts and help fuel a lower self esteem. For many people “food”
can become an obsessive thought which takes up much of the day, the
shame often causes some bingers to hide from others how much food
portions that they actually eat in a day. One woman emailed us “I
hate my body”, she admits to being a long time binger. In honesty
few people know how to stop binging, in this post we will discuss
body image in relationship to bingeing and what to do about the
issue.
Why we hide and seek
For most people who are bingeing the “seek” comes before the
hide, for some, seeking which foods will be apart of the binge can
heighten the pleasure of the actual binge; seeking bingeing food can
be a spontaneous act or well planned. We have received letters from
hundreds of bingers who actually plan days in advance for a coming
bingeing episode, in addition, many people have lived with this
condition for years and have learned how to hide the bingeing from
their family members. One of our many readers, a woman 30 year ago
described planning and hiding binges for over 7 years (her husband
still does not know about her behavior), she admits she hates her
body. Low self esteem,obesity and diabetes can all contribute to the
poor body image of a binger.
Researchers at the
Source
School of Psychology, Flinders University of South Australia,
Adelaide, Australia made it abundantly clear that body image,
diabetes and being overweight are all related to bingeing.
The Australian Study conclusion:
“The women with diabetes, however, had significantly lower
self-esteem. Further, bingeing made a significant contribution to
their self-esteem, in contrast to the women without diabetes. For the
women with diabetes, body dissatisfaction and bingeing were also
related to perceived blood glucose control, although only bingeing
remained significant when both variables were entered into the
regression equation. It was concluded that diabetes broadens the
domains of body dissatisfaction which are related to self-esteem “
Many studies have shown the link
between body dissatisfaction and bingeing, this study reveals the
link between body image, health and self esteem.
Why you binge
Binge eating is causes by emotional
triggers that activate brain hormones which create the 'urge” to
eat large amounts of food. What most people do not understand is that
a normal diet does not address the urge to overeat, this is why
dieting fails most bingers. The emotional triggers that cause a
person to binge are not addressed by will power, the attempt to stop
a binge with willpower will almost always lead to failure.
What worked to stop bingeing urges
When researchers gave bingers a
specialized natural diet created to stop bingeing it worked, when
the brain triggers were naturally addressed with a diet created for
binging the binging stopped, this is what most diets cannot do.
Binging is not resolved by simply
“trying hard not to eat”, bingers have brain triggers that fire
prompting a powerful desire to consume mass quantities of food.
When bingers were given a diet created
for them the diet addressed the root cause brain impulses to overeat,
this has worked in over 10 countries to stop sugar addiction,food
addiction or binge eating
