Semistarvation-Associated Eating Behaviors Among College Binge Eaters: A Preliminary Description and Assessment Scale

Abstract

Binge eating is a consequence of semistarvation in victims of war and famine and in volunteers in rare semistarvation experiments. These behaviors include bizarre mixing of ingredients and adulteration of food; eating inappropriate, soiled, or discarded food; secrecy; deception; and defensiveness. Drastic measures to resist overeating persist long after the semistarvation experience, even when food is plentiful. Binge eating, a central feature of bulimia and sometimes of anorexia nervosa, is prevalent in modern society, but the occurrence and frequency of semistarvation-related behaviors have not been well identified or quantified. A Semistarvation-Associated Behaviors Scale was constructed and administered to 40 college students. Among binge eaters, reports of bizarre semistarvation-like behaviors were common and frequent and were associated with dieting.

Pseudoparadoxical impulsivity in restrictive anorexia nervosa: A consequence of the logic of scarcity

“…In those cases where patients were monitored after release, nearly all individuals regained most or all of the weight lost during the procedure. Animal models indicate that binge eating persists long after starvation has been reversed (Hagan & Moss, 1997), and studies of human survivors of catastrophic starvation reveal the same pattern (Favaro, Rodella, & Santonastaso, 2000;Hagan et al, 1999). The continuation of binge eating after the alleviation of resource scarcity may re¯ect the workings of an adaptive mechanism designed to gauge the local environmentÐif famine has occurred once during an individual's lifetime, the likelihood may be increased that it will occur again, and hence the persistence of intake-maximizing behaviors may be adaptive.…”

“…Despite strong dedication to the experiment, four subjects engaged in compulsive binge eating. Binge eating is reported in a large number of historical accounts of starvation (Hagan, Whitworth, & Moss, 1999). One Minnesota subject suffered kleptomania; among liberated survivors of the Belsen Nazi concentration camp, impulsive food theft persisted even after it was clear that food was no longer in short supply (Niremberski, 1946).…”

Incidence of Chaotic Eating Behaviors in Binge-Eating Disorder: Contributing Factors

“…In a previous study that used the Semistarvation-Associated Behaviors Scale (SSABS), 3 Hagan, Whitworth, and Moss revealed that college students who met the DSM-IV-R criteria for BED engaged in significant numbers of anomalous and bizarre eating behaviors while binge eating. These behaviors included hoarding food, hiding food, secretly eating others' food, eating inappropriate (raw, frozen, soiled, or spoiled) food, and rummaging through garbage for previously discarded food.…”

“…This finding paralleled the results found arnong college students classified as "high binge eaters" on the basis of yeslno responses to the proposed BED criteria. 3 We were not surprised because we expected that individuals seeking treatment would have the same or a more intense degree of eating-related pathology as college students who were not in treatment. However, the surprising discovery was that the factors that significantly contributed to chaotic behaviors among the clinical BED population differed from those found to contribute to chaotic eating in the college sample.…”

“…In that study, the investigators assessed the occurrence and frequency of those behaviors with scores on the SSABS. 3 "chaotic" eating behaviors believed to be a consequence of semistarvation in victims of war and famine as well as in experimental semistarvation studies."' Although college students' dieting behaviors are not expected to equal the severity of these reports of semistarvation, the study by Hagan and colleagues3 revealed that similar bizarre behaviors in college binge eaters were highly correlated (p < .001) with current frequency of dieting.…”