Calorie Mindful or Drunkorexia

I recently came across a research article discussing a phenomena (possible 'disorder') called drunkorexia. The term and what it means caught me off guard and to be honest, disturbed me. It disturbs me for a couple reasons. The first is that I am loathe to think that my advising persons - as a public health educator - to consider how they spend their calories in a given day might in some way suggest that I think people should drastically cut their calories in order to 'fit in' highly caloric (and dangerous) binge drinking. Of course, I expect that the primary audience for my blog and YouTube channel are not mostly college aged females - the group that engages in this behavior the most - and is instead, people doing their best to consume the right amount of calories to keep themselves at a health promoting weight. So when I say that I personally consider the 1 beer, glass of wine or alcoholic beverage (~ 100 cals) in my daily total, and thus have a smaller lunch or breakfast in order to have that drink, I am NOT advocating skipping meals or 'starving' in order to 1) drink on an empty stomach for a quicker high or 2) or to consume 500 or more calories in alcohol and not gain weight.

I am also concerned when people medicalize/diagnose behaviors, like the dumb one I just described, into psychological problems - at least too quickly. Labeling people, in my experience as a social worker (not a psychiatrist/psychologist or nutritionist), too soon or maybe at all, can cement the problem; the person becomes the problem - the illness manifests because someone said it was there.

My area of expertise and research is not eating disorders. The main point of this post, and the point I will reiterate and end with is: being smart about the calories you consume does not include - never includes - not eating. It is easy to reduce a breakfast and or lunch by 50 to 100 calories by changing its ingredients. I do not advocate any of the behaviors associated with this 'drunkorexia.'

Managing Your Alcohol

   College programs that address alcohol use focus on harm prevention instead of use prevention.   Even with high school students who by law are forbidden to drink, an emphasis on protection is in place.
  People are going to drink.  
  Health educators can offer strategies to those who use alcohol which can reduce the risk of negative consequences.  Negative consequences include poor school work,  athletic impairment, health complications, driving or other major and minor accidents and legal troubles.
  Below is a list of some things that people can do to avoid over consumption, drunkeness and other adverse consequences.  These strategies can be used by all of us, including mature adults who are attending holiday parties!
 

-    Choose a drink containing less alcohol

-    Pace your drinks to 1 or fewer per hour

-    Stop drinking at a predetermined time

-    Set a limit on how many drinks you’ll have

-    Put extra ice in your drink

-    Monitor your BAC

-    Alternate non-alcoholic beverages

-    Avoid drinking games

-    Keep track of how many drinks you’ve had

-    Avoid trying to “keep up”

-    Have a friend let you know what you’ve had enough to drink

-    Hold a drink so people stop bothering you about drinking

-   Make your own drinks to control the amount of alcohol you have