New poll shows increasing rates of eating disorders among US women

Majority of young American women has serious eating disorders, according to a new study. About 10 percent of them suffer from anorexia and binge eating disorder.

Photo: New poll shows increasing rates of eating disorders among US women

More than 4,000 women between the ages of 25 and 45 took part in an online poll and it turned out that 75 percent eat, think and behave abnormally around food.

Researchers tried to single out any racial or ethnic background of the problem but revealed relative multicultural equality of participants with eating disorders.

However researchers got very surprising findings connected with unhealthy purging activities.

More than 31 percent of women in an attempt to lose weight induced vomiting or took laxatives, diuretics or diet pills. More than 50 percent of them were engaged in purging activities at least a few times a week, and even every day.

The idea that eating disorders affect mostly young women can easily be rebutted by this study highlighting that women in the 30s and 40s had about the same rates of disordered eating as younger women.