Selected Podcast

Binge Eating Disorder & Emotional Eating: Do You Know the Difference?

Binge Eating Disorder & Emotional Eating: Do You Know the Difference?
During holidays, friend and family parties, or a night out at dinner, it's easy to overindulge (binge) on foods you normally would try to avoid. Even though you may feel bad about it, it's important to know that it happens to everyone at some point, and you shouldn't beat yourself up about it.

However, binge eating is different than binge eating disorder and emotional eating.

Binge eating disorder is a serious eating disorder that affects roughly four million Americans. Binge eating is categorized as eating unusually large amounts of food on a daily basis. Some of the symptoms associated with binge eating disorder are eating even though you're full, eating in secret, feeling ashamed or guilty of yourself after eating, frequently dieting, losing and gaining weight, and eating rapidly during a binge episode.

According to the National Eating Disorders Association, binge eating disorder affects approximately one to five percent of the general population.

Emotional eating occurs when a certain emotion (whether it's anger, sadness, anxiety, stress, or positive emotions) triggers you to overeat and ignore signals that you're full.

Can binge eating or eating disorders be partly due to genes?

Kelly Klump, PhD, discusses the symptoms of binge eating disorder, as well as how it's different than emotional eating or experiencing a binge every once in a while.
Featured Speaker:
Kelly Klump, PhD
Kelly KlumpKelly Klump is an MSU Foundation Professor in the Department of Psychology at Michigan State University (MSU). In 1998, she received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Minnesota.

She completed her pre-doctoral, clinical internship at McLean Hospital, Harvard School of Medicine (1997-1998) and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine (1998-2000).

Her research focuses on genetic and biological risk factors for eating disorders using both human (i.e., twin studies) and animal models. She is particularly interested in developmental changes in genetic and hormonal risk factors and their meaning for the development of eating disorders.

Dr. Klump has published over 145 papers and has received a number of federal grants for this work, including several funded NIMH projects. She also has been honored with numerous awards including the David Shakow Award for Early Career Contributions to Clinical Psychology from the American Psychological Association, New Investigator Awards from the World Congress on Psychiatric Genetics and the Eating Disorders Research Society, the MSU Teacher-Scholar Award, the MSU Distinguished Contributions to Honors Students, and the Price Foundation Award for Research Excellence from the National Eating Disorders Association.

Dr. Klump is the first faculty member to receive a MSU Foundation Professorship, which is an endowed professorship that aims to recruit and retain top faculty at MSU. She was the 2007-2008 President of the Academy for Eating Disorders, the largest, international professional organization dedicated to the treatment, research and prevention of eating disorders.
Tagged under