EATING DISORDERS

EATING DISORDERS
Eating disorders are a phenomenon affecting millions of
young women in Western societies. Eating disorders are a
food-related dysfunction in which a person changes her
eating habits in a way that is harmful to the mind and/or
body. Cultural elements are at the root of eating disor-
ders—primarily the expectation that beauty is defined by
thinness. To begin a discussion of eating disorders, it is
first necessary to identify the criteria for making diag-
noses and to clarify distinctions among specific eating
disorders. This section presents the  Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition,
Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) criteria for eating disorder
diagnoses and introduces the prevalence rates for women