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How and why you eat is affected by many factors:

• appetite
• food availability
• family
• friends
• cultural practices
• your own efforts to control your eating

Excessive dieting - dieting to the extent that you lose more weight than is healthy - is seen by some as "trendy" or even necessary to be slim and fashionable. From belly-baring fashions, to gaunt, skeletal runway models; women have taken the idea that "thin is in" to new extremes in the new millenium.

Eating disorders represent a mental health effect of this preoccupation with body weight, shape and diet. Typically, if you have an eating disorder, you'll have unhealthy eating behavior. This may include extreme and unhealthy reduction of the amount of food you eat. Or, you may severely overeat. If you have an eating disorder, you almost always will feel bad about your eating, body shape, weight -- or all three.

Mental health professionals still doesn't know exactly whey some people move beyond normal eating behavior, like cutting back on how much you eat in order to stay healthy, and at some point become out of control, evolving into a full-blown eating disorder. We do know that this is a complex process, and no one factor is the cause or reason.

We also know that eating disorders are not due to a failure of will or behavior. They are, on the other hand, real medical illnesses that are diagnosable and treatable.

What Are The Main Types of Eating Disorders?

The main types of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. A third type, called binge-eating disorder, is not yet a formal psychiatric diagnosis, but it's increasingly recognized as another major category of eating disorder.

Who Gets Eating Disorders, and When?

Females are much more likely than males to develop an eating disorder. Only an estimated 5 to 15 percent of people with anorexia or bulimia and an estimated 35 percent of those with binge-eating disorder are male.

Most often, eating disorders develop during the teenage years, or as a young adult. More and more, there are reports of eating disorders developing even in elementary school-age children, and adults.

Eating Disorders and Health

Eating disorders frequently show up along side of other mental health issues, such as depression, alcohol or drug abuse, and anxiety disorders. People who suffer from eating disorders also risk serious -- and sometimes fatal -- health complications, including serious heart conditions and kidney failure.

This is why it's particularly important for eating disorders to be recognized, diagnosed and treated.

MORE INFORMATION

Find out more about the specific types of eating disorders and treatments now:

• What You Need to Know About Eating Disorders
• Anorexia Nervosa
  
• Bulimia Nervosa
  
• Binge-Eating Disorder
  
• Treatment Strategies
  
• Research Findings and Directions
  
• More Help With Eating Disorders
  
• Eating Disorder References
  

Source: National Institute of Mental Health. Eating Disorders: Facts About Eating Disorders and the Search for Solutions. 2006NIH Publication No. 01-4901.