The Maltese may be among the fattest in Europe but another reality is lurking in the shadows – nearly five per cent of all women aged between 16 and 50 have suffered from an eating disorder at some point in their lives.
In men, the figure is 1.2 per cent.
The statistics emerge from recent research carried out by the National Statistics Office and the Directorate for Health Information and Research.
In all, nearly one per cent of the population in this age group is suffering from one or more of the three kinds of eating disorder – anorexia, bulimia or binge eating – and two per cent have been afflicted sometime in the past.
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The figures roughly tally with the incidence of eating disorders in the rest of Europe.
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An eating disorder is when someone makes unhealthy choices about food arising out of an excessive focus on their weight and shape.
In anorexia, sufferers try to keep their weight as low as possible by starving themselves or exercising too much. Those who suffer from bulimia try to control their weight by binge eating – the compulsion to overeat – and then deliberately being sick or using laxatives.
More than half of the Maltese who have an eating disorder – 57 per cent –binge eat while 34 per cent are anorexic and 13 per cent are bulimic.
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