This week is National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) Awareness Week.  As people work to spread the word about this noble cause I often find that we are flooded with information that can be difficult to digest at once.  Sometimes it can be helpful to compile some basic information that is easy to understand and take in.  So here are some of the most recent statistics and health effects of eating disorders I was able to compile as well as some simple, straight forward definitions.  This information is important because eating disorders have very high mortality rates compared with other mental health disorders.  Women are more likely to suffer from eating disorders but men can also be diagnosed.  The last part of this blog talks about how these eating disorder may affect teenagers.