WHAT IS BINGE EATING

While the term "binge eating" is of recent origin, the symptoms of this behavior have been recognized in medical writings for over two thousand years. In ancient works, excessive eating was referred to by the Latin bulimus or bolismus. Derived from the Greek bous, "ox," and limos, "hunger," the words referred to a ravenous or animal-like appetite. It was only later that distinctions were made between overeating with and without purging (vomiting).

Hippocrates wrote of binge eating as "sick hunger" as distinguished from ordinary hunger. In 1743, A Medical Dictionary, compiled by James in England, described a condition labeled "true boulimus" characterized by intense preoccupation with food and overeating within a very short interval.

Prior to the eighteenth century, binge eating was thought to be caused by any one or a combination of digestive dysfunction, stomach acidity, gastritis, defective gastric secretions, congenital structural abnormalities, brain disease, and head injury. It was only in the nineteenth century that theories regarding the possible psychological nature of this behavior emerged.

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