Eating disorders of any kind can have a devastating impact on an individual, as well their family and friends.
A report estimates that more than 725,000 people in the UK are affected by an eating disorder of some kind and around 11% of those affected are male.
Former One Direction singer, Zayn Malik recently revealed that he too suffered with an eating disorder during his time in the band. In his autobiography ‘Zayn’, he explains that he would go for days without eating.
“Something I’ve never talked about in public before, but which I have come to terms with since leaving the band, is that I was suffering from an eating disorder,” Zayn explains.
“I’d just go for days — sometimes two or three days straight — without eating anything at all. It got quite serious, although at the time I didn’t recognize it for what it was.”
“When I look back at images of myself … before the final tour, I can see how ill I was,’ he wrote.” The workload and the pace of life on the road put together with the pressures and strains of everything going on within the band had badly affected my eating habits.”
Malik, who said his eating disorder is now under control, attributed his struggle with food to feeling a lack of control in his life at the time.
“Food was something I could control, so I did,” he wrote.
