Dr. Gupta is a licensed psychologist and professor at Barnard College, Columbia University. She specializes in the treatment of anxiety and eating/weight issues at Tribeca Psychology in NYC
Strong food cravings and changing eating habits are normal experiences during pregnancy. For some women, however, the changes may be indicative of an eating disorder. A research study released online last week examined rates of binge eating and purging among women to find out how many of them developed, or recovered from, an eating disorder while pregnant.
How do we draw the line between binge eating, soon to be recognized as a unique eating disorder, and more general overeating? A group of researchers just released a new study examining a key difference between these types of eating - feeling a loss of control while eating.
The seemingly ordinary act of looking in a mirror everyday can lead many people to feelings of disgust, shame, and sadness. As a result, they may avoid mirrors or, conversely, have trouble resisting the urge to check out how they look in any reflective surface. Therapists have been using mirrors as part of the treatment for eating disorders for years, but the research to support this has been mixed. A new study just came out examining mirrors in therapy via a randomized controlled trial.
Many programs claim they can help you reduce binge eating and lose weight, but they often don't have any research to back up that claim. Researchers in the United States and Switzerland just released two independent studies comparing different treatments for binge eating disorder. They examined how well therapy and/or medication helped reduce binge eating, not just in the first few weeks, but months and years after treatment ends.
Despite years of scientific research showing that eating disorders affect men and not just women, many people still associate eating disorders with women. The problem isn’t just in popular media; even academics continue to publish research studies in which they include only women in their analysis. A new academic paper released online this week describes how eating disorders in men are misunderstood by both the public and treatment providers.
Everyone experiences anxiety and some degree of perfectionism from time to time. To what extent might those qualities influence binge eating and dieting? A new research study examined that question by following a group of college students weekly for about 3 months.
If someone is eating unusually large amounts of food at night, could it represent an eating disorder unique from bulimia and binge eating disorder? We often associate binge eating with evenings/night, in part, because it’s a time when people are in a private space and trying to relax or cope with the struggles of the day. This makes it complicated to distinguish between binge eating disorder, general emotional eating, and night eating syndrome, a related eating disorder with recent research support.
Many people intentionally fast for reasons ranging from weight loss to religion. If people avoid eating food for an entire day, how would it affect their mood or their cravings for certain foods or the amount of food eaten after the fast? Researchers from Spain examined this question and compared responses between women with bulimia and women without an eating disorder.
When someone with an eating disorder says they are vegetarian, it often signals a red flag for their treatment providers. Is the vegetarianism part of their disordered eating or independent of it? Given that vegetarianism is at all time high in the U.S. right now, it’s a tricky question. Two new studies published this summer examined the tendency of people with eating disorders to be vegetarian and their motives behind this choice.
Sitting at a restaurant with friends, you’re trying to decide whether or not to finish your entrée and possibly order more food. How would your decision be different if you were alone, with strangers, or with different friends? A new research study suggests that if your friends eat less food, you’re also likely to eat less and continue eating less when you're alone soon thereafter.
November 30, 2012