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- October 12, 2007

Not just a craving


From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Having to eat for two makes a woman hungry. That’s part of being pregnant. What should not be part, though, is binge eating. Researcher Cynthia Bulik of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill says binge eating is different. When these women eat, they really eat, at one sitting, and they say they feel out of control as they do it.

Bulik studied cases in Norway. Her work, which was supported by the National Institutes of Health, was in the journal Psychological Medicine. She says some women became binge eaters during pregnancy.

``Before pregnancy, 3.5 percent of women had binge eating disorder. During pregnancy, 4.8 percent of women had binge eating disorder, so you can see that bump that happened during pregnancy.’’ (11 seconds)

Bulik says women who have eating disorders during pregnancy should seek help.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: May, 26 2008