Women Are More Likely To Develop Eating Disorders; Here’s Why

Many people don't feel confident in their bodies and the way society defines "beauty" plays a big role in this. Mainstream standards of beauty can often be confusing. Whether you are short, tall, obese, skinny, or suffer from acne – society will find something to criticise about. This causes many people to feel insecure about their bodies and it can end up in people developing eating disorders.

Eating Disorder Cases Seen More In Women

According to a study by the National Centre for Biotechnology Information, anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN) are more common among women than men.

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that causes people to obsess about what they eat and their weight. Anorexia is characterised by a distorted sense of body image, with an unwarranted fear of appearing overweight. Symptoms of Anorexia nervosa include trying to maintain a below-normal weight through starvation or too much exercise.

Bulimia Nervosa is a condition in which people binge eat a large amount of food in a short amount of time and then use ways to get it out of the body by vomiting or using laxatives. They may also rely on excessive exercise as a coping mechanism.

Why Women Are More Likely To Develop Eating Disorders?

We talked to Dr Rohini Patil, MBBS, Nutritionist and founder of Nutracy Lifestyle, to understand more about the reason behind women facing such issues more often than men.

According to her, women are more vulnerable to societal pressures and constant comments about their weight than men. That is the reason why they are likely to have a more negative idea about their own bodies.

Objectification and sexualisation of women and gender stereotypes can also lead to these mental health disorders in women, including eating disorders.

Thus this susceptibility to body dysphoria becomes an important underlying factor behind higher rates of eating disorders in women.

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Women Are Held To Unrealistically High Beauty Standards

The majority of women experience body dysphoria because they are constantly reminded that they need to look perfect. Often family, relatives, and friends start commenting, making jokes and expressing concerns about what will happen to them if they don’t adhere to these arbitrary standards of beauty. This pressure can perpetuate body image or eating issues. This leads to women thinking and worrying about perceived flaws in their appearance, which can cause dysmorphia. Dysmorphic disorder is a mental illness which involves an obsessive focus on a perceived flaw in appearance.

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