Eating too much or too little – bulimia and anorexia, two extreme pathologies in our relationship with food, affect primarily adolescent girls and young women. A combination of factors lies at the origin of eating disorders, and the psychological aspect is the most important of these. The example of anorexia illustrates the point. Like all illnesses of a psychological nature, anorexia is difficult to pin down or treat. However, since…
The medical term bulimia was borrowed as recently as 1979 from an older French word meaning “an unstoppable desire to consume”, which is why in France, at least, people will sometimes say jokingly “Hey, you’re bulimic today!” or talk about “bulimia of reading”. However the medical problem of bulimia, characterised by eating huge amounts of food, is no joke. It would be a mistake not to take it seriously,…