FOOD RESTRICTION AND BINGE-EATING - A STUDY OF FORMER PRISONERS OF WAR

Food restriction is correlated with binge eating, but evidence that re striction leads to binge eating is scanty. In this study we investigat ed postwar binge eating in 67 World War II combat veterans and 198 for mer prisoners of war. As predicted, binge eating was relatively rare i n combat veterans but was significantly more prevalent in veterans who , as prisoners in German prisoner of war camps, lost significant amoun ts of weight during their captivity. Our data thus support the content ion that starvation or dieting seems to precede binge eating.