'Drunkorexia' dieters skip meals for alcohol

A new phenomenon called “drunkorexia,” where young women substitute meals for drinks to get their daily calories, has become a big area of concern in the US and Britain. In order to stay slim, young women drink white wine and skip lunch, for instance.

Young women are feeling pressured to drink as well as to stay slim, swapping their dinners for a few glasses of wine instead. If they are enrolled in diet clubs, which insists on daily calories limit, the young women follow up by drinking more instead of eating.

This “drunkorexia” phenomenon seems to be widespread in the U.S. and is gaining popularity in UK, according to a medical expert in the Telegraph news magazine.

Janet Treasure, the head of the eating disorder unit at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, said this practice is very dangerous, and the binge drinking and irregular eating patterns will cause more harm to the body.

Treasure told the Telegraph.

They get fully hooked, it is an extremely noxious thing. It is more common with bulimia than anorexia but you get the combination of empty calories with no nutritional value and the risky behavior that goes with being drunk.

For the same weight, alcohol has more calories than carbohydrates or protein. A 150 ml glass of white wine contains 150 to 170 calories. The young women compensate for the daily calories requirements by drinking wine and skipping lunch or dinner.

Other alcohol beverages such as vodka with a low calorie tonic mixer have 100 calories and beer has 250 calories per pint.

Susan Price, the spokesman for the British Dietetic Association, told the Telegraph you can't lose weight by just missing meals and drinking more.

You are more likely to be binge drinking. What you should do is eat a healthy balanced diet and choose low calorie mixers and non-alcohol low calorie soft drinks.

Drunkorexia must be the worst weight-loss plan to follow. I hope the girls know that.

Do you see this “drunkorexia” trend posing a problem like anorexia or bulimia?