The reason why colleges try to educate about the risks of EDs is due to the serious, short term, consequences of rapid weight loss...heart failure, kidney failure, severe dehydration. Though overeating and the subsequent obesity do infact cause health problems, it is the immediacy of the ED that needs to be addressed.
Agreed. See my post #172...
I think the reason these girls start down the road of thinking that things will be better if they can just get thinner is influenced significantly by the sea of seriously overweight people around them, most of whom are having trouble keeping various areas of their lives under control -- not just their weight. There's a fear of getting onto a slippery slope that others around them are obviously already on. And of course, the onset of severe eating disorders almost always occurs at an age when mentally maturing young women are starting to feel a natural need to exercise control over their own lives, while modern society postpones the feasibility of meaningful control for quite a few more years. Weight is one of the very few areas over which youth in this age range can actually exercise virtually complete control.