Eating rate in the treatment of eating disorders and obesity

The cause of eating disorders and obesity Outcome of the treatment of anorexia and bulimia nervosa remains suboptimal [1], possibly because it is assumed that eating disorders are caused by anxiety disorders [2] although interventions targeting these disorders are not effective [3]. An alternative approach is based on the observation that eating disorder symptoms emerge in healthy people who volunteered [4] or were forced [5] to starve. Most patients have a history of reduced food intake; bulimic behavior, for example, is elicited by food deprivation [4,5]. Starvation changes eating behavior [4] and we hypothesize that the change mediates between physical state and cognitive state in the patients. Similarly, obesity may causally depend a change in eating behavior [6]. Experimental control of eating rate Recording weight loss of a plate during meals yields