Article content

Nearly one in five university students deliberately curb how much they eat before going out drinking, suggests a new Canadian study that offers more evidence of the so-called “drunkorexia” phenomenon on campus.

The behaviour is not — as sometimes portrayed in the past — just about young women trying to control their weight while binging on alcohol, the research indicates.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or About 20% of university students cut back on food before going out drinking: study Back to video

Almost as many male as female students restrict their food intake before hitting the bottle, and the motivations include both calorie watching and simply wanting to get drunk faster, the study of 3,400 undergraduates concluded.

Regardless, experts say the behaviour is concerning, not least because it could hasten the risks of over-drinking — from impaired driving to unprotected sex, physical injury and sexual assault.

“I think it’s much more unhealthy than just drinking and just dieting,” says Kaley Roosen, the psychology PhD student at York University who headed the study, just published in the Journal of Health Psychology. “Doing it together magnifies the negative effects of alcohol.”