Eating disorders are not new illnesses. They have been present in one form or another for centuries, although attempts to understand them have increased in the last 100 years.

The first known medical documentations of anorexia nervosa appeared in 1873 when two physicians, Sir William Gull and Dr E. C Lasegue published separate case histories of patients.

Bulimia nervosa was first recognised as a separate eating disorder in the 1970s, and in 1976 it appeared in psychiatric diagnostic manuals for the first time.

Binge eating disorder has only recently (1990s) been recognised as a separate eating disorder.