If your son does this he might have an eating disorder

Usually it's our daughters we're told to worry about when it comes to eating disorders, but disturbing new research shows a third of boys are unhappy with their appearance too.

Eating disorders among boys are increasing at an alarming rate as young men starve themselves and purge to get the body they want.

The phenomenon is so widespread that the name ‘manorexia’ has been coined to describe it.

Research published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics found  31 per cent of males have binged on food or purged.

The study’s lead author, Alison Field of Boston Children’s Hospital, said: "We need to be thinking more broadly about eating disorders and considering males as well."

Her team spent three years surveying 5527 boys aged 12 to 18. Overall, they were most likely to worry about being muscular, and their concern increased with age. The study said this could be the male equivalent of some girls’ preoccupation with extreme thinness.

Professor Field blames the media for fuelling insecurity by photoshopping male models.

"The images these teens are seeing of models don’t even look like that," she said. "They’ve been airbrushed and shaded … so everyone believes they have unbelievable definition in their abs and arms."

Professor Field said dangerous products are now widely available and are making the problem worse. "There are a whole range of products available online that we don’t know if they’re healthy or not. We know when a lot of them are tested, they’re not what they’re marketed to be."

Signs your son may have manorexia:

• Over-exercising
• Obsession with looks
• Comparing themselves to celebrity bodies
• Asks how they look
• Measuring and weighing themselves excessively
• Restricting certain food groups
• Abusing drugs or muscle-building supplements