Are you the kind of person who likes making the oddest food combinations, such as crackers with catsup, or even banana with bagoong? Then you have to be more watchful of your diet, as according to a feature on ScienceDaily.com, this may be a sign of binge eating.

Primary investigator Mary Boggiano, Ph.D., and a team of researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham surveyed 507 psychology students and 45 eating disorder patients. They looked into reasons as to why some people are more inclined to create strange food mixes, as well as the emotions the participants have while making and consuming them.

Results showed that only nine percent of the participants who prepared concoctions were propelled by actual hunger; a whopping 41.2 percent said that they did so because they craved for it, even though they already feel full. This relates to the fact that binge eating often happens after a normal meal. Also, binge eaters and chronic food mixers reported having the same emotions of a person suffering from drug addiction.

"While they are food concocting and binge eating they report being excited, in a frenzy, and high, but afterwards they feel awful about themselves," Boggiano notes.

Diets that cause people to feel deprived of food choices is one of the reasons for people to binge eat, especially when they see something that they really want to munch on. In order to avoid this, it's important to create a well-balanced menu. This also applies to those who aren't really monitoring their weight. Being conscious of the reason behind the urge to eat may also help control binging.

If and when things get out of control, and if it seems that the behavior has escalated into a dangerous eating disorder, immediately seek professional help.

(Photo by Lynn Gardner via Flickr Creative Commons)