We’ve all heard of anorexia, bulimia and even more recent eating disorders like manorexia. The latest phenomenon afflicting those trying to stave off pounds, known as drunkorexia, is a trend in which women skip meals in order to spend their daily calorie intake on alcohol, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Many weight-loss clubs assign food points to edible items, with dieters sticking to a daily point limit, The Telegraph reports. Experts believe this is contributing to the drunkorexia problem, with women consuming the same number of points, but replacing food points with alcohol points.
Fear of consuming the high-calorie count in alcohol, coupled with the pressure on young women to binge drink, contributes to the problem. A large glass of wine holds as many calories as an average light lunch, the Telegraph reports.
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Professor Janet Treasure, the head of the eating disorder unit at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, told the Daily Telegraph drunkorexia is very dangerous because it effectively combines binge drinking and disordered eating patterns.
"They get fully hooked, it is an extremely noxious thing,” Treasure told the Daily Telegraph. “It is more common with bulimia than anorexia but you get the combination of empty calories with no nutritional value and the risky behavior that goes with being drunk."
Susan Price, spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association, told the Telegraph that skipping meals in order to drink more was dangerous and not an appropriate way to lost weight. Price suggests eating a balanced diet with low calorie drink mixers like diet soft drinks with alcohol as a healthier alternative.
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