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It's not just for teenagers and young women anymore.  Sadly, anorexia and bulimia are striking middle-aged and older women, too. A friend whose daughter recently married confided that, while she had lost seven pounds for the wedding (and this woman is thin), she found that, after the wedding, she'd eat something, see how many calories it was, then go work out for that exact same amount of calories so she didn't gain weight.  "I couldn't stop," she said.  "I see how you can get obsessed." In a recent study, women 60-70 were asked about their eating behaviors, weight history and how they felt about their bodies.  A shocking 90% said they felt very or moderately fat, and over half reported being dissatisfied with their bodies. You have to remember, we live in a culture where thinness to the point of boniness is prized, and these days, 60-year-olds want to look like 40-year-olds.  If they can't quite meet that goal, why not starve yourself? ...

Now one more thing to worry about.  Just as soon as obese girls start losing weight, they're at risk of eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. That's the conclusion of a new study , as reported by newswise.com. And it's a double-edged sword, because families and doctors may see "the weight loss . . . as positive," Mayo Clinic researchers imply in a recent  Pediatrics  article, and therefore not detect the problem. The scary facts are that at least 6 percent of adolescents suffer from eating disorders, and more than 55 percent of high school females and 30 percent of males "report disordered eating symptoms including engaging in one or more maladaptive behaviors (fasting, diet pills, vomiting, laxatives, binge eating) to induce weight loss." Formerly overweight adolescents tend to have more medical complications from eating disorders and "it takes longer to diagnose them than kids who are in a normal weight range," newswise.com...