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Eating disorders are a guy thing, too

They are often thought of as problems for women and girls, but men and boys are also susceptible

By Karen Weintraub

 |  Globe correspondent  

  November 14, 2011

Christopher R. Skarinka had heard about eating disorders. But everybody knows those are for girls - not a problem for a buff, 6’5” guy like himself. Yet by the time he graduated from Harvard, in 2007, he was addicted to making himself purge. Eating disorders have long been considered a female problem, but a 2007 Harvard study based on national survey data found that men are one-third as likely as women to have anorexia or bulimia and more than half as likely to have a binge eating disorder.

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