2. Myth: Binge Eating and Overeating Are the Same Thing
Fact: Pretty much everyone overeats at some point, whether because of a delicious food spread on Thanksgiving, the irresistible allure of a favorite dessert, or a grandmother who insists on serving everyone seconds even if they already feel full, says Cynthia Bulik, PhD, a professor of psychiatry and nutrition and founding director of the Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
“What distinguishes a binge from overeating is the sense of loss of control,” Dr. Bulik says. “Once you start eating, you feel like you can’t stop.”
In addition to the loss of control, a binge is also characterized by the amount of food you eat in one sitting. It’s not just that you’re eating more than you usually do; it’s that you’re eating more than most people would in a similar situation, such as eating more than one full meal, or several entrees, or multiple desserts, or a variety of foods that, added together, make up a large amount. A binge isn’t eating three pieces of pizza when you’d normally eat two, for example.
Unlike with overeating, binge eating involves an impulse to eat that can nag at people with BED even when there’s no food around or they’re at work and won’t have a meal break for hours, says Bulik, who’s also a professor and director of the Center for Eating Disorders Innovation at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
“For example, I have had patients tell me that they might get an urge to binge in the afternoon at work and sort of go through the motions the rest of the day, all while their brain is planning out where they are going to stop on the way home to get food, what they are going to buy, and whether they are going to binge in the car or at home,” Bulik says.
It’s also important to note that an infrequent binge isn’t considered a symptom of an eating disorder. For a diagnosis of BED, binge eating episodes must happen at least one day a week for three months, according to the DSM-5.
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