By: Stephanie Levy E-mail: metouka@hotmail.com Each year a million of women in America are affected by serious and sometimes life-threatening eating disorders. The most common eating disorders are bulimia and anorexia. Eating disorders occur in men and older women, but more than 90 percent of those afflicted with these diseases are adolescents and young adult women. Two to three percent of young women develop bulimia, a destructive pattern of excessive overeating, followed by vomiting or other "purging" behaviors to control their weight. In comparison, two percent of young women develop anorexia, a sickness in which one intentionally starves one’s body. The causes of these diseases are not ve