National Eating Disorders Organization Eating Disorders Information and news releases furnished by the members of PR Newswire, who are responsible for their fact and content. Millions of people in America suffer from disordered eating patterns, ranging from chronic dieting to more severe behaviors such as bingeing on large amounts of food followed by self induced vomiting, over use of laxatives and excessive exercise.
Good nutrition is critical throughout adolescence, the body's peak bone building years.
Without proper nutrition, these adolescents are entering adulthood with compromised skeletal health and an increased risk of osteoporosis. Osteoporosis, a disease characterized by loss of bone tissue, can be brought on prematurely among people with eating disorders. Due to the severe reduction of food intake characteristic of this condition, the body becomes deprived of the calcium it needs to build proper bone mass. This causes the bones to be brittle and prone to breakage. Unfortunately that is the most common age for females to be afflicted with eating disorders.