Does Fasting cause Disordered Eating?
No it does not, contrary to popular belief.
Eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia, are extremely serious and occasionally fatal diseases. Anorexia nervosa is a psychological condition of distorted body image, where people see themselves as being very overweight, but in truth are dangerously underweight. Because of this problem, they often engage in extreme diets including fasting to lose more weight. In bulimia, people binge and purge. They will eat excessive amounts of food with little or no control. They simply cannot stop themselves. Afterwards, they get rid of the food by purging — usually by self-induced vomiting or laxative abuse. There is often concern that using an intermittent fasting strategy can cause eating disorders. Luckily these concerns are usually misplaced.
Fasting is only a tool. No more. No less.
There are two important points to keep in mind during this discussion. First, fasting is merely a tool — they can help or hurt depending upon the situation. Think about a knife — in the right hands, under the right conditions, a scalpel wielded by a trained surgeon will save your life. But that same blade, used to stab somebody will also kill them. The tool is identical — a knife. By itself the tool is neither good nor bad. Everything depends…
