Drunkorexia - the next thing to worry about!

Mar 18 2008

In a worrying new trend experts are concerned that some young women are replacing food with alcohol.

It seems 'drunkorexics' are a growing phenomena where young women skip meals in order to binge drink so they don't gain weight.

Experts warn that drunkorexia is most common among university students faced with the conflicting pressures of heavy drinking in order to fit in and trying to remain slim.

While drunkorexia is not a medical term, some dietitians believe there is a link between binge drinking and eating disorders.

The phenomenon affects mostly weight-conscious women who offset the calories from heavy drinking by skipping meals.

With two large glasses of white wine containing 300 calories, drunkorexics will starve themselves in preparation for a night on the town.

Dietitian's say the hard-drinking culture of student life together with images of stick-thin celebrities with wine glass in hand can play a significant role in pressurising young women.

Such factors along with popular web sites where women confess to or advocate their own methods of calorie off-setting may re-enforce binge drinking as being cool and losing weight and being thin as a cultural imperative.

The link between eating disorders and alcoholism is not novel and recent research has found that up to a third of bulimics struggle with alcohol or drug abuse, while a survey revealed that 36 per cent of women receiving treatment for alcohol abuse also confessed to eating disorders.

Experts say the link between alcohol misuse and eating disorders has been known about for decades.

Interestingly the incidence of anorexia is greater now than it has ever been, and binge drinking too is on the rise.