[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 57 (Tuesday, May 6, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3998-S3999]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. REID:
  S. 697. A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to establish a 
program of providing information and education to the public on the 
prevention and treatment of eating disorders; to the Committee on Labor 
and Human Resources.


       THE EATING DISORDERS INFORMATION AND EDUCATION ACT OF 1997

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, today I am introducing the Eating Disorders 
Information and Education Act of 1997. This legislation would establish 
a program, as part of the Public Health Service Act, to provide 
information and education to the public on the prevention and treatment 
of eating disorders. Eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia 
nervosa, and binge eating disorders. Further, my bill would provide for 
the operation of toll-free telephone communications to provide 
information to the public on eating disorders. Such communications 
shall be available on a 24-hour, 7-day basis.
  Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and compulsive overeating are all 
serious emotional problems that can have life-threatening consequences. 
An eating disorder refers to a set of distorted eating habits, weight 
management practices, and attitudes about weight and body shape. 
Further, it is these distorted eating related attitudes and behaviors 
that result in loss of self-control, obsession, anxiety, guilt, and 
other forms of misery, alienation from self and others, and 
physiological imbalances which are potentially life threatening.
  Anorexia nervosa is an intense and irrational fear of body fat and 
weight gain, a determination to become thinner and thinner, and a 
misperception of body weight and shape to the extent that the person 
may feel or see themselves as fat, even when emaciation is clear to 
others. These psychological characteristics contribute to drastic 
weight loss and defiant refusal to maintain a healthy weight for height 
and age. Food, calories, weight, and weight management dominate the 
person's life.
  Bulimia nervosa is characterized by self-perpetuating and self-
defeating cycles of binge eating and purging. During a binge, the 
person consumes a large amount of food in a rapid, automatic, and 
helpless fashion. This may anesthetize hunger, anger, and other 
feelings, but it eventually creates physical discomfort and anxiety 
about weight gain. Thus, the person purges the food eaten, usually by 
inducing vomiting and by resorting to some combination of restrictive 
dieting, excessive exercising, laxatives, and diuretics.
  Eating disorders arise from a combination of longstanding 
psychological, interpersonal, and social conditions. Feelings of 
inadequacy, depression, anxiety, and loneliness, as well as troubled 
family and personal relationships may contribute to the development of 
an eating disorder. Our culture, with its unrelenting idealization of 
thinness and the perfect body, is often a contributing factor. Once 
started, eating disorders become self-perpetuating.
  The Federal Government has taken a role in research into eating 
disorders. The National Institutes of Health [NIH] is sponsoring 
research to determine the causes of anorexia, the best methods of 
treatment, and ways to identify who might have a high risk of 
developing the disorder. Further, NIH, through its Division of 
Researcher Resources, supports 10 general clinical research centers 
throughout the country

[[Page S3999]]

in which anorexia research is underway.
  Researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health are studying 
the biological aspects and changes in brain chemistry which may control 
appetite. Although psychological or environmental factors may 
precipitate the onset of the illness, the study indicates that it may 
be prolonged by starvation-induced changes in body processes.
  Althouth research into eating disorders is established and 
continuing, we need to provide help for those already trapped in the 
cycle of an eating disorder. That is why I offer my legislation today, 
to provide a resource to people who need help.
                                 ______