.
There is no doubt about it that female athletes are more likely to develop eating disorders than male athletes, as the above statistics note. Walsh believes that "although these athletes may not meet the criteria for anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa and typically do not have disturbances in body image, behaviors and complications similar to those seen in full-blown eating disorders are seen" (583). The Female Athlete Triad was initially described in 1992 due to a concern of the health of collegiate female athletes. Disordered eating, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis are the diseases that make up the Female Athlete Triad. "Disordered eating is described as a spectrum of abnormal patterns of eating, including binging, purging, food restriction, prolonged fasting, use of diet pills, diuretics, and laxatives, and other abnormal eating behaviors" (Walsh 583). Walsh states that female athletes are more likely to develop amenorrhea, both primary and secondary, than their more sedentary peers (583, 587). Amenorrhea is defined as "the absence of at least three to six consecutive menstrual cycles in women who have already begun menstruating" (Walsh 578). Osteoporosis is the third disease of the Female Athlete Triad. "Half of all amenorrheic athletes have bone densities at least one standard deviation below the mean" (Walsh 587). Bone density may be decreased in the sites of the body subjected to impact loading during exercising putting these athletes at an increased risk of stress fractures states Walsh (587). "Estimates of the prevalence of disordered eating in athletes range from 15% to 62%, and amenorrhea may occur in 3% to 66% of athletes" (Walsh 587).
Though research currently in progress suggests otherwise, eating disorders amongst African-American women and other non-Whites in the United States are at much less risk. Current research is starting to prove that levels of binge eating disorder are increasing and at a higher level amongst African-American women than those of White women.
