Young women skip meals to ‘make room’ for wine

US: Young women are putting their health at risk by cutting calories from food in order to binge drink, experts have warned. Experts found one in four female students reduce what they eat to ‘make room’ for alcohol calories.

The phenomenon known as ‘drunkorexia’ is most common among university students faced with the conflicting pressures of heavy drinking and staying slim.

Knowing they are going to have to drink to fit in but not wanting to put on any weight, they will skip meals before a night of heavy drinking.Termed as ‘drunkorexia’ experts have discovered that teenage girls are skipping meals so that they can consume more alcohol..

U.S. researchers at the University of Missouri who questioned college student found 16 per cent of those surveyed reported restricting calories to ‘save them’ for drinking. But the practice is three times more common among women than men, with women reporting they want to lose weight and spend less money getting drunk.

Victoria Osborne, assistant professor of social work and public health said the practice was a toxic combination causing physical and mental damage and putting women at risk of alcoholism. She said: `Apart from each other depriving the brain of adequate nutrition and consuming large amounts of alcohol can be dangerous.

A ‘drunkorexic’ is someone who skips meals so they can binge drink without putting on weight and affects mainly young women. Although alcohol itself doesn’t actually contain fat, it is packed with calories.

Dieticians coined the term ‘drunkorexia’ because they believe, based on their work with clients, that there is a link between binge drinking and eating disorders.