De-gendering eating disorders…

When you hear the terms “anorexia,” “bulimia,” and “binge-eating,” it’s pretty common to think first of a woman.  But this recent study, published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, found that the number of men who binge eat is actually not that much lower than the number of women.  So just because men are underrepresented in the research, this does not mean they are not suffering from eating disorders also!  However, because so few eating disorder studies include men, eating disorders have come to be labeled as a “female problem.”  This is not only a falsely-gendered personification, but it also leads many men to feel embarrassed and reluctant to seek treatment.   This study takes a big step in raising awareness and opening the door to a new wave of research that will focus on the entire population of people who face these challenges!

The New York Times also covered this topic in the article Binge Eating Among Men Steps Out of the Shadows.