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Eating disorders include anorexia nervosa (self-starvation) and bulimia nervosa (binge-purge syndrome). Although anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa represent different types of disordered eating, both entail a distorted body image and fear of fatness.

Specifically, anorexia nervosa involves self-starvation alone or in combination with excessive exercising, occasional binge eating, vomiting, or laxative abuse. An individual with anorexia nervosa refuses to maintain minimum weight for age and height and is at least 15 percent below expected weight. Bulimia nervosa is a pattern of bingeing and self-induced purging. This eating disorder consists of binge eating, followed by vomiting, laxative abuse, enemas, or ipecac use. One's weight is usually normal or close to normal.

The reported occurrence of eating disorders increased markedly over the past 30 years. Eating disorders do not exist equally across populations; they have very specific patterns of distribution and are most prevalent in certain cultural contexts and sociodemographic categories.

In general, eating disorders most commonly occur among young, white, affluent females in modern, industrialized countries. Concerning the gender distribution of eating disorders, 90 percent of individuals with eating disorders are female. Cultural norms of the body are critical to understanding why females are more vulnerable to eating disorders than are males. Specifically, the pervasive thinness norm for women is a major contributor to gender differentiation. The ideal body norm for males, in contrast, is to be muscular and not skinny or weak. Rather than desiring weight loss and thinness, males want to gain weight and size from muscle.

Females perceive themselves as overweight even when they are not. For example, over half of college females believe they are overweight when a much lower percentage actually is. In addition, nearly three out of four college females of normal weight report their wanting to be thinner. This striving for thinness develops early. For example, girls as young as 6 years old choose as ideal image silhouettes of girls who are thinner than they are and already falsely think of themselves as overweight.

The ideal body type of thinness is also crucial to understanding the international distribution of eating disorders. Within developing countries, many people do not get enough to eat; only the affluent can afford to be fat or corpulent. So, fatness becomes a symbol of wealth and an ideal body shape. Therefore, eating disorders, with their fear of fatness, are unlikely. Further, the eating disorder of bulimia nervosa is less likely, due to the expense of buying large quantities of food for bingeing. Also, it seems improbable in a developing country that one would have anorexia nervosa, or deliberate self-starvation, when forced starvation is evident.

In contrast, in modern, industrialized nations, fatness no longer symbolizes affluence because people generally obtain enough to eat. In fact, it is possible to eat too much. Thus, being slim becomes a symbol of discretionary eating, and appearance ideals shift from plumpness to thinness. Affluent groups in particular have the resources to eat as much, as or little, as they want.

In the United States, whites compose most of the affluent classes, which helps to explain why eating disorders are more prevalent among whites. Also, larger-size body norms for women may be more prevalent among certain ethnicities, such as African Americans and Hispanics. Eating disorders are more common among individuals of color as they become more upwardly mobile, and among recent immigrants to the United States who experience acculturation.

Another major sociodemographic pattern in the occurrence of eating disorders concerns age. The teens and early 20s are the most reported ages of onset and prevalence. This time is one in which individuals form their identity and are quite vulnerable to peer group influences and appearance expectations. Problems with self-esteem also occur more often during this age period. Thus, manipulating one's weight and being extra compliant with thin body norms are more likely occurrences in young age groups.

Bibliography:

1) American Psychiatric Association. 2000. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV-TR. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

2) Gordon, Richard A. 2000. Eating Disorders: Anatomy of a Social Epidemic. 2nd ed. Oxford, England: Blackwell.

3) Morris, Anne M. and Debra K. Katzman. 2003. "The Impact of the Media on Eating Disorders in Children and Adolescents." Paediatrics & Child Health 8:287-89.

4) Sypeck, Mia Foley, James J. Gray, and Anthony H. Ahrens. 2004. "No Longer Just a Pretty Face: Fashion Magazines' Depictions of Ideal Female Beauty from 1959 to 1999." International Journal of Eating Disorders 36:342-47.

5) Taub, Diane E. and Penelope A. McLorg. 2007. "Influences of Gender Socialization and Athletic Involvement on the Occurrence of Eating Disorders." Pp. 81-90 in Sociological Footprints: Introductory Readings in Sociology, 10th ed., edited by L. Cargan and J. H. Ballantine. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.

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