The Eating disorder can be described as an illness that is as a result of irregular eating habits. Eating disorders are derived from distress over body shape and weight and some type obsessed to food. Self-food denial and bingeing is as a result of being conscious of body weight and shape. If prolonged and unnoticed some types of eating disorders can be fatal. Eating disorders are classified in three major categories as described below. Read more about the different types of eating disorders here!

The first category is Anorexia nervosa which is characterized by extremely low body weight in relation to the gender, age, and height. This is life treating due to the fact that it's based on psychological disorders and self-starvation. The highest number of people with eating disorder suffers from anorexia nervosa. The reason for this is that most people adopt eating habits like self-starvation or denial, exercising too hard, or eating a few meals that are perceived to be healthy and safe. The agenda is to achieve and maintain the desired body shape by cutting more weight and ensuring that they maintain the same eating habit to maintain the shape. If you find your loved ones trying to copy model body shapes from TV advise them to follow guidelines from a nutritionist on how to maintain that desired body shape.

In the third category bulimia nervosa, those who are suffering are viewed as normal weight, unlike anorexia nervosa. Victims of bulimia nervosa usually have a tendency of eating too much food at a given time in what is referred as bingeing. The next thing that they do after this is purging. To reduce the body weight gained they do purging through fasting, self-induced vomiting, excessive exercises and reduce the normal diet. The cycle is repeated over and over again since once they feel lost control in body weight they start the cycle. If the cycle continues for a long time the victim suffers from health issues like kidney problems, dental problems, but can be treated through therapy.

Binge is our third category of eating disorder characterized by overeating and lost control in eating. Most victims who suffer from binge are obese and overweight. Unlike bulimia nervosa victims of binge do not practice purging. Most of the victims are suffering from guilty of eating too much and having no control. Characteristics of binge include finding lots of food containers within short periods of time and skipping meals especially in company of others. Avoid discussing body weight around them but you can find safer ways to encourage them to reduce weight. Read more on binge eating disorder treatment here!

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For more information, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_disorder.