Binge Eating is referred as Binge Eating Disorder or BED in medical term. Uncontrolled eating leads to obesity. If it proceeds to severe obesity or morbid obesity, then bariatric surgery is the only option out. Obesity and binge eating are interrelated. Let us examine how they influence each other.
Reasons for Binge Eating
- Anxiety
- Moderate to high levels of stress
- Depression
- Subjecting the body to unhealthy diet practices – Such unhealthy diet practices can subject the body to essential nutrient deficiency and this can lead to craving. Severe craving can result in binge eating to supplement the nutrient need.
- The surrounding environment of constant beaming of TV commercials of unhealthy foods can induce a sense to try out these processed, unhealthy foods. Such foods can be addictive and can eventually lead to binge eating.
Why people binge eat?
The stress or the anxiety or the depression, deprives them of happy hormones. When they binge eat, the sugar level increases and induces the brain to release happy hormones like dopamine, endorphin, etc. What started as an effect becomes a habit eventually. Food is the easily accessible mood elevator. So they use food to elevate their happy mood.
Once binge eating or uncontrollable eating leads to being overweight it thereafter leads to obesity. They both complement each other and provide for a destructive partnership. The out-of-shape body can induce anxiety and this can contribute to binge eating. Over anxiety can play into our psyche and can cause stress and ultimately depression.
Obesity also induces the human body to become lazy and less in physical activity. This state is more stressful and this can in turn cause binge eating.
Hence we need to control binge eating. This is needed to lead a healthy lifestyle and eating foods that make us feel more satisfied and full.
Ways to Control Binge Eating
- If you are only overweight you can opt for Gastric Balloon. This is a non-surgical weight loss procedure that works on the principle of “restriction”.
- If you are morbidly or severely obese you cannot just reduce weight with simple weight loss procedures. Hence only a bariatric surgical procedure would be the best option.