“Drunkorexia”: Worrying Trend Has Students Eating Less, Drinking
More It is hardly news that eating disorders and alcohol abuse
both have a significant presence on college campuses. However, a
disturbing trend among young adults called “drunkorexia,” a
combination of these two disorders, has recently been which is
making headlines. Drunkorexia refers to the restrictive eating
behaviors that some people engage in before consuming alcohol,
in order to conserve calories as well as get drunk faster.
Because alcohol has a high calorie content—many beers clock in
at 150 calories—some students who wish to avoid weight gain
will, for example, drastically decrease their food intake or
skip meals entirely in order to consume the same amount of
calories in alcohol. This behavior is unsurprisingly common
among college students, and is said to be especially prevalent
among female students. While drunkorexia is a useful label for a
common behavior, it is not a medical term, and many disagree
about whether it should be cons