Parental attempts to control their child’s eating were reported more often by obese adults than by adults of normal weight, according to a 1991 New England Journal of Medicine study.

Another study found that when a parent tries to overrule their child's natural hunger pangs, the child overeats.

Fifteen percent of young women are dissatisfied with their bodies, causing them to go to extreme lengths to alter their shape, according to the National Eating Disorders Screening Program. Women of diverse sizes develop less-publicized types of eating disorders, often referred to as disordered or compulsive eating.

photo: Berkley Books

Susie Orbach's 1978 book was one of the first to introduce the anti-diet method.

Women with disordered eating divide what they eat into good and bad categories and then chastise themselves when they break self-imposed rules, say experts.

The Women’s Therapy Centre Institute in New York City is a group of therapists who work with women whose unhealthy relationships with food range from extreme dieting to chronic bingeing.

"Our approach is about ‘re-learning’ to feed yourself," says Carol Bloom, a therapist at the institute.