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But it remains a fact that the elderly may develop eating disorders with all the same symptoms as appear in the young. Experts say that the elderly and teenagers share the most obvious underlying reason for an eating disorder occurring at any age, which is to gain control over an aspect of their life.

Deanne Jade, founder of the National Centre for Eating Disorders, says: "Anorexia always follows a diet, which has been initiated by feelings of inadequacy and often triggered by thoughtless or unguarded comments.
"When original size or weight goals are achieved however, they are unable to stop dieting. The world becomes an unsafe place in which all food is an enemy.
"Being thin is no longer as important as losing weight, and yet the more weight decreases the more the anorexic perceives themselves as fat."

There are proven psychological, emotional, biochemical, hormonal and even genetic reasons for eating disorders. The British Medical Association says that eating disorders are serious psychological illnesses which require considerable medical intervention and may be, in part, genetically determined.