Living With Food: The Science Supporting Eating Disorder Treatment

As we have blogged about before, eating disorders are present in both the male and female population, however there is conflicting data on the percentage of males who suffer from an eating disorder. We are unaware of this percentage for multiple reasons including lack of self-report, lack of diagnosis, lack of presentation for treatment, and lack of adequate research. We do know that in 1960s men were thought to represent 1 in 1000 people with eating disorders. The current estimates range from 1 in10 to 1 in 4. Since the data on this question is not strong, we would like to present a series of questions for people in the eating disorder community to consider when thinking about the topic of men and eating disorders.

• Are eating disorders a woman’s illness?
• Does a male with an eating disorder have a similar experience as a woman with the disorder?
• Do men think about body image in the same way as women?
• Does sexual orientation affect the prevalence of eating disorders in men or women?
• Is it easier, harder, or the same for men to get effective treatment, or to recover?
• Does a man’s experience with an eating disorder affect his relationship with other men or women?
• When you meet a man do you consciously or unconsciously evaluate body size and shape as you would with a woman?
• When a man discusses what he eats, do you ask yourself if it's evidence of an eating disorder the same way you would with a woman?
• Are you as likely to wonder if a man in an eating disorder profession has the illness as you might for a woman?

One of the things we have learned is that when women know that men also suffer from eating disorders it helps to understand that these are biological and genetically based illnesses, rather than a self created problem. As we try to explore more answers to these questions, hopefully we will learn more, not just about men with eating disorders, but about everyone who suffers and how we can be helpful.

For more information on males and eating disorders, please visit the following link: Males and Eating Disorders: Research

Should you have any questions or comments regarding this post, please email blog@eatingdisorderscleveland.org.

Contributions by Sarah Emerman