Reality TV star "Snooki" admits former eating disorder

By Staff Writer

As many as 10 million females suffer from eating disorders in the U.S., and more than half of teenage girls engage in unhealthy weight-control behaviors, according to the National Eating Disorders Association. Because of the secretiveness and shame associated with anorexia and bulimia, the conditions often go untreated.

However, reality television star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, who was brought into fame by the show "Jersey Shore," recently admitted that she suffered from an eating disorder in high school, Mom Logic reports.

"I almost died," she told The Insider earlier this year. "In high school, I really wouldn't eat. It got so crazy that I would only eat a cracker or a cucumber a day and I would feel full. I would go into the nurse's office every day and I would weigh myself. When [the school nurse] realized that I hit 80 pounds, she was like, 'This isn't good.'"

The nurse notified Polizzi's parents and she eventually recovered from the condition.

According to a Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity study at Yale, between 15 percent and 30 percent of women said they would rather walk away from their marriage, give up the possibility of having children, be depressed or become alcoholic rather than be obese.