Food concocting is common sign of binge-eating disorder, according to a study from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Researchers found that people who concoct are more likely to binge eat than those who overeat without bingeing. Those who concoct reported the same emotions as drug users during the act; they also reported later feelings of shame and disgust, which could fuel an existing disorder.
Mary Boggiano, associate professor in the Department of Psychology and primary investigator of the study, said study participants self-reported their emotions while concocting. The answers revealed a vast majority felt "excited" and "anxious" during the process.
"While they are food concocting and binge eating they report being excited, in a frenzy, and high, but afterwards they feel awful about themselves," said Boggiano.
According to Boggiano, the actual number of binge eaters who also practice food concocting is likely to be higher than that revealed in their survey.
"We found significant numbers in a non-clinical population. If the same survey was given to people in a hospital, clinical or psychiatric setting, they would certainly report higher levels," Boggiano said.
Researchers developed their study around the novel 'famine hypothesis', theorising that concocting would be linked to caloric deprivation.
The study found that while food concocting is more prevalent in binge eaters, it is dietary restraint - or food deprivation - that uniquely accounted for the pervasiveness of concocting.
The research team looked at why people practice food concocting. The majority, 41.2 per cent of those who concocted, said the behaviour was due to a craving. Only 9 per cent reported hunger as a motive.
Boggiano said that is not surprising because most binges occur after a normal meal, when sated, and may be part of the "loss of control" criterion of binge eating.
Boggiano believes food concocting has never been studied scientifically because nobody has thought to quantify the behaviour or consider that it may worsen eating disorders if linked to negative emotions.
The food concocting study surveyed 507 students from UAB and the University of Texas at El Paso, along with 45 clients seeking outpatient treatment for eating disorders in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The stuy will be published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders.
