The real physical tragedies we endure from BED are mistakenly not the extra pounds we tote around with. The true physical damages lay in a less visible area, inside our bodies. Our body is actually an extremely delicate system that needs a very specific recipe of nutrients, minerals and water in order to function properly. Also necessary for maintaining an efficiently running body is the inclusion of healthy fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. “Binge eaters have been known to habitually eat one type of food more often than other types, depending on personal preference. Binge eaters tend to choose unhealthy, fatty, sugary or processed products”.  Not only are we ingesting all the wrong types of foods, we are screwing with the proper flow of important components causing our bodies to become disease stricken. Whether we are obtaining too much or too little of all the right things, bottom line is we are messing with the harmony of our system causing ourselves to become sicker than just is the head.
In addition to the well-known outcome of becoming obese, research suggests that BED could cause some of the following complications: 
- Type 2 diabetes
- High blood pressure
- Heart disease and strokes
- Certain types of cancer
- Sleep apnea (pauses in breathing during sleep)
- Osteoarthritis (a disease where the joints wear down, causing stiffness and pain)
- Fatty liver disease
- Kidney disease
- Irregular periods and infertility in women
- Pregnancy problems, such as high blood sugar during pregnancy, high blood pressure, and increased risk for cesarean delivery (C-section)
The first disease on this list (and most commonly acquired from BED) is type II diabetes. Type II diabetes is when “the body does not produce enough insulin or the cells ignore the insulin. Insulin is necessary for the body to be able to use glucose for energy”.  Acquiring type II diabetes from weight gain is a misconception. Actually, those at a normal weight with type II diabetes are twice as likely to die from it compared to their overweight counterparts. It is genetics and lifestyle attributions that contribute to this disease. “Research has shown that drinking sugary drinks is linked to type 2 diabetes” . I particularly don’t like sugary drinks. What I do like is cupcakes, ice cream, cookies and pretty much any other type of sweet treat. Since I don’t like sugary drinks though does that mean I am safe? I wouldn’t go that far. Using common sense the difference between sugary drinks and non-sugary drinks is, drumroll please, SUAGR. And sweets are, well, sweet because of sugar. I think it would be safe to assume that any sugary item in excess is a huge contributor to of type II diabetes.
The increased risk of diabetes as a cause of sugar consumption, has definitely crossed my mind, and with utter disgust. I’ve always thought what could be more embarrassing than getting diabetes because I had one too many cupcakes in life? In my eyes there should be a third type of diabetes, “Type III Diabetes: the Binge Eaters’ Diabetes”. The one you get from living a super unhealthy, binge crazed lifestyle. What could be more appalling than facing friends and family, being if anything mildly overweight (like a pound our two), to explain I have type II diabetes? It would be considered the equivalency of a cigarette smoker getting lung cancer, or an alcoholic having liver damage. While their vices cause (a good percentage of the time) irreplaceable damage, so could ours.
Motivationally speaking, being aware of the complications that BED causes inside and out, it would be in our best interest to try harder than we already do to put a stop to it. It is extremely frightening to think that we spend time, energy, money, sweat and tears on causing these damages to our bodies. Is there anything uglier than purposely wreaking havoc on our, very beautifully created, biological system? Probably not.
“What’s the whole point of being pretty on the outside when you’re so ugly on the inside?” ― Jess C. Scott, I’m Pretty