A new study recently reported that men and some minority groups have been drastically underrepresented in clinical tests that research treatment options for eating disorders.
US News reported that according to Helen Burton Murray, co-author of the study and director of the GI Behavioral Health Program at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, the percentage of men who took part in clinical trials for eating disorders during the past ten years was less than half of the percentage "we would hope to see."
Part of the problem is that men are not considered as vulnerable to eating disorders as women, experts explained, so doctors do not think of diagnosing them.
However, they might be looking for the wrong symptoms, as well. It is possible that there are male-pattern eating disorders that are totally different from the conditions that have been well-established in women, according to experts.
Binge Eating in Men
Clinical tests for binge eating disorder from 2011 to 2020 comprised approximately 20 percent men, about half what's needed for actual representation, said Burton Murray. Moreover, recent approximations hold that males account for as many as 40 percent of binge eating cases in general.
Male representation in anorexia-bulimia studies, in particular, was even worse. As indicated in the research published in JAMA Network Open, men account for 19 percent of anorexia or bulimia cases, although clinical tests for those conditions had less than five percent male participation.
One probable explanation is that doctors detect eating disorders in men less frequently, Burton Murray explained. They also don't seek medical treatment as frequently as women and thus are less likely to be signed up for a clinical trial.
In other studies, Males are generally less likely than women even to be diagnosed with an eating disorder or seek or get treatment, Burton Murray explained.
That may be one reason males were not included since probably, recruitment tactics of such studies were to recruit from clinic populations where they had already been diagnosed with an eating disorder.
Obsessed with Muscles and Protein
According to Burton Murray, if one believes that eating disorders are associated with an ideal body image, the ideal body is quite different between men and women.
She described the ideal female body as "thin, very slender and very low weight," and that's giving rise to the behavior that's being considered to be "classic eating disorders." The ideal male body, on the other hand, she continued, is frequently ultra-muscular and lean, really ripped and large.
The study's co-author also explained that body ideal does not give rise to the same set of behaviors at all. It is not likely that one will attain a body that looks like that if he is restricting calories.
The condition among males, what Burton Murray calls muscularity-oriented disordered eating, as described in a report from the University of California San Francisco, comprises rigid rules around counting protein, meal scheduling, meticulously prepared dishes, and never not wanting to be caught short minus protein powder.
Frequently, explained the expert, these men get anxious if they cannot eat adequately. Frequently too, she added, these males are getting anxious if they go too long between meals as they are worried about their bodies not being constantly topped up with protein to support maximum growth of muscles.
Related information about male eating disorders is shown on BBC Breakfast's YouTube video below:
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