Jean-Louis Tu wrote re binge eating..
>  Binge eating is a recent phenomenon: it appeared just a few decades ago.

I was glad to see your post on binge eating on this forum. I think binge
eating is but one symptom of the food addiction and goes as far back in
history as we can find an overweight person. I doubt if it is more
common among instinctos or fruitarians than among the general
population. All of the addictions are based on the original addiction to
people called co-dependency. The addictions to food, alcohol, etc, are
tips of the iceberg. People who go to self help programs like OA usually
control their food issues but transfer their addiction to people. Unless
they get into recovery for co-depedency they remain addicted to people
and do not really recover. I cannot provide statistics for this
conclusion because the self-help programs are anonymous, but I have seen
this personally in myself and in hundreds, perhaps thousands, of others.

> The foods eaten during binges are usually
> high in fat and carbohydrates, easy to eat, don't require any preparation,
> and are the "forbidden foods" (chocolate, cookies, ice creams...)

The craving is for stimulants and sedatives, just like an alcoholic
craves the stimulant and sedative alcohol, and the foods instinctos eat
are naturally free of stimulants, so it is helpful for a food addict to
eat this way. but as you say, it is still a problem for food addicts no
matter what they eat.

My best, Ellie, recovering food addict.