The Facts And Fallacies Of Eating Disorders

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- We like to talk about eating healthy and exercising, but doing this can be difficult when you have an eating disorder.

It's an illness that causes serious disturbances to your everyday diet, such as eating extremely small amounts of food or severely overeating. To learn more about the facts and fallacies of eating disorders, Rebecca Cooper, the founder of Rebecca's House Eating Disorder Treatment Center, joined the WCCO This Morning Show on Thursday.

Cooper said eating disorders are definitely on the rise across the country, and binge eating is also finally being recognized as a disorder that's contributing to obesity nationwide. Cooper said in addition to starving yourself, overeating can be considered a disorder.

Cooper said Rebecca's House is a treatment center that provides all levels of care and has patients from all over the world who meet regularly with doctors and dieticians.

Cooper recently finished writing a book called, "Diets Don't Work." She discovered through intense research that often eating disorders can come from going on a diet. She said that about 35 percent of people who go on a diet end up with an eating disorder.

She said eating disorders often come from thinking about food, weight, diet or your body image as a way of suppressing your feelings that are coming up.