Drinking and eating disorders go together

By Na Hoang

hoan0040@algonquincollege.com

To prepare for a night of drinking, calorie-conscious individuals are cutting back on food consumption in order to drink more alcoholic beverages in a new trend called “drunkorexia.”

Drunkorexia is an informal term used to describe an eating disorder where people eat less in order to consume high-calorie cocktails, beers, and coolers.

“It’s a type of eating disorder, but I don’t like to think I had an eating disorder. It is more about planning, organization,” said Brad Smithson, 27, HVAC student.

Smithson admits it was his ex-girlfriend who initially got him into calorie counting in order to lose weight.

“My ex-girlfriend used to set out how many calories I could eat in a day, and made sure I didn’t eat as much if I was going to drink beer,” said Smithson.

According to Diet-Blog.com, 30 per cent of college-aged students, 18 to 24 years old, are drunkorexic.

A CBS news article also stated that 30 per cent of young women with alcohol problems also have some form of eating disorder.

First-year music production student Kate Baker, 19, was warned beforehand about alcohol from her mother.

“My mom was like don’t drink beer because you’ll gain weight,” said Baker.

“The freshman 15 is because of alcohol.”

Living in residence, Baker feels there is a lot of pressure to drink on weekends.  Every weekend, she has at least one drink and if she had to guess, she would estimate that a bottle of beer would have more calories than a can of Pepsi.

Smithson is familiar with online websites that list out the number of calories for meals and particular items of food when he and his ex-girlfriend used to systematically count calories.

According to Reelbeer.com, a 12 once bottle of Heineken contains 160 calories, a 12 ounce bottle of Guinness Draught contains 120, and 12 ounces of Budweiser contains 140 calories. Lighter beers, such as Bud Lite or Miller Lite contain a bit less than 100 calories in a bottle. A 12 ounce bottle of Smirnoff Ice has 228 calories.

So guzzling down a six-pack of Budweiser would put 840 calories into your body.

“If you want to drink, you aren’t going to cut alcohol out, you just modify the type of food you eat,” said Smithson.

He said instead of cutting out food, it is better to just cut out certain types of junk food.

Although he stopped worrying about losing weight, he considers this trend to be more popular amongst college-aged women who care more about calories.

“I never eat enough before I drink,” said Baker, who admits that nerves and excitement prevent her from keeping an appetite.

Similarly, Smithson, who used to drink everyday before school started, said that he doesn’t do much preparation before drinking; it is more spur of the moment.

“If I’m going to prepare myself, I’m going to eat a big meal—pasta, sub, pizza—something to absorb it but for the most part, I really just let go.”

With society becoming more image-conscious, university-aged people are not just substituting food for alcohol.

“I know someone who would rather drink high caffeine drinks instead of eating a meal,” said Monique Gabat, a fourth year political science student at Ottawa University.

Drinking coffees, lattes, and cappuccinos help students stay awake and study, but are oftentimes loaded with sugars. A 16oz vanilla bean latte made with 2 per cent milk from Second Cup contains 300 calories and 36 g of sugar.

Although drunkorexia may be considered an eating disorder, many college students prepare for a night of drinking by not eating anything at all, not for physical reasons, but simply to get drunk on less.

“If I’m preparing for a night of drinking, I usually refrain from eating something last minute, that way, when you do drink the alcohol it has a stronger affect because it’s on an empty stomach,” said Gabat.