They apparently can eat just fine. It's their attitudes about food and body image that are f***ed up.
I'm incredibly hard-pressed to consider these behaviors a "disease." If it was a genuine disease, it'd be showing up all over the world: America, Europe, Russia, Asia and even Africa. But as it stands, it's only in nations in which everything is so okay that people have to make crap up to be miserable about.
The carrot-and-toast thing almost certainly would qualify as OCD, at least if I read the DSM-IV right.
ACTUALLY, these women have OCD: Obsessive compulsive disorder...stress makes it worse, and it is manifested as eating. "Sex addiction", "transgender confusion" "gambling addiction" and other obsessive ideas that take over one's life are also OCD varients.
I believe it is a condition that entitles me to free stuff and sympathy. But those views might meet with some disagreement here on this forum. That's okay, I don't really need the free stuff. But it would sure be neat if you were to give it to me anyhow. Because after all, I'm special. And you all bloody well know it.
All my life I have been dealing with people who have serious eating disorders, a parent, a sibling, a child. In my opinion the tendency to get an eating disorder can be inherited. There is a lot more to it than body image. I have an older son with an eating disorder that doesn't fit anyone's criteria. It's ruining his life. One of the worst things is the doctors who say they know how to treat it but who actually only know how to collect fees.
I like the old (OLD) "nutrtion" guides: 3 squares and each meal balanced between the food groups. And those 3 squares are eaten pretty much at the same time EVERY day. I know this is news to some families. And little to no fast food. I've seen it work miracles in households where some or all have eating disorders. egads... Raise your children with this, and no matter the fad, they tend to stick with that routine. Not fat, but healthy, informed eaters.
I will put on my nowex but almost all eating disorders can be almost immediately reversed by eating low carb.