Which describes the health risks of binge-eating disorder?

a. learning to control eating patterns
b. eating slowly and deliberately to maintain control
c. excessive weight gain that results in diabetes and high blood pressure
d. starvation and weigh loss

The answer is C. excessive weight gain that results in diabetes and high blood pressure.

Explanation:

Binge Eating Disorder (BED) is a serious, life-threatening disorder which may lead to several metabolic diseases and complications like diabetes mellitus and hypertension. This should be immediately addressed by a psychiatrist in order to give intervention earlier to avoid development of chronic diseases.

1. Recurrent binge eating episodes should be both characterized by the following,

"Eating, in a discrete period of time (e.g., within any 2-hour period), an amount of food that is definitely larger than what most people would eat in a similar period of time under similar circumstances," and

"A sense of lack of control over eating during the episode (e.g., a feeling that one cannot stop eating or control what or how much one is eating)."

2. It is then associated with any 3 of the following

3. Marked distress regarding binge eating is present.

4. The binge eating occurs, on average, at least once a week for 3 months.

5. The binge eating is not associated with the recurrent use of inappropriate compensatory behaviors (e.g., purging) as in bulimia nervosa and does not occur exclusively during the course of bulimia nervosa or anorexia nervosa.