12 Video Game Characters with Eating Disorders

EATING DISORDER: BINGE-EATING

Pac-Man is an obvious over-eater with a dependence on a certain kind of pellet. He displays a kind of elation when exposed to a certain kind of pellet, almost like that of consuming a drug. He has such a co-dependent relationship with his food that he cannot work up the courage to confront his regular, every-day bullies unless he's had that kind of (larger) pellet.

The more he eats, the happier he is. Some have blamed the implied drug influence of the Classic NAMCO game, while others simply fear for the type of culture which would eat over 100 tic tacs and then eat some cherries, an entire coke, or a barrage of other carb-heavy fruits/foods.

EATING DISORDER: BULIMIA NERVOSA, BINGE-EATING

Kirby is known for being a round little ball of love and heroism, but what we don't often talk about is that he's actually a starving Bulimic with a binge-eating problem. He binges on things like fruits the size of his entire bodies, his enemies and often seemingly inedible wooden blocks with semi-attractive packaging (stars.)

Kirby displays some of the most openly and outwardly aggressive eating disorder symptoms from obsession with food, to dependence on it to live. If it wasn't for his Bulimia, he would be dead. Swallowing his enemies and then regurgitating back their fallen foes at them isn't exactly the most mentally healthy "default attack." Some of us like to throw a punch here or there.

The fact that his binging and purging is so explosive and violent is a great marker of the point that Kirby really does have a problem, should find some help, and maybe learn how to defend his Dreamland with something other than his vomit and his friends that let him eat them, so he can them "become" them, like in that cheesy 90s movie "Ravenous".

EATING DISORDER SUBMISSIVE, CO-DEPENDENT BINGE-EATING

Yoshi displays an enormous amount of courage, initiative and hero-like care about the well-being of others throughout the entire Mario (and even his very own) video game series. The one thing that's not usually addressed is how (even though he can fly and his boots can kill people, i.e. he has the exact same "powers" as Mario) he eats whatever Mario tells him to gladly, and holds it in until Mario tells him to spit it out.

Anyone who willingly eats, dresses and acts according to other people's wishes/opinions of them clearly has not only a self-esteem issue but problems with their perception of food and its effects on their life and others' opinion of them.

People like this tend to closely adhere to the "you are what you eat" mentality and eat whatever people think they should be eating. Even wearing a saddle for him (even though he could not only defeat, but eat him alive), Yoshi bends over backwards for Mario on a constant basis, and even dies for him, at points in the game (yet miraculously comes back.)

Nobody should dictate what you eat, what you do and what you purge and when, yet Mario does this for Yoshi and nobody seems to care.

EATING DISORDER: FATALLY-NEGLIGENT BINGE EATING

This is one of the most addicting games in the history of gaming... why? Because it was the only game available on the most popular phone in the late 90s/early 2000s. Everyone who was a gamer and had a Nokia always competed over their scores on the famous "snake" game, which was basically an apple catching game.

So what makes this an eating disorder? The fact that the snake is never able to really function without these apples, the fact that they're the driving force of his self worth (the points) and the fact that he'll risk his life in order to eat.

Whenever you're eating, you should never be at risk of life or limb, your meals should be a treat and something that you enjoy as you need, not something that you risk your life for. This is the equivalent of running two miles through a live warzone for a McRib (which a lot of us -- read: me -- would actually do.)

The worst, most tragic part about this character, and their condition, is the fact that they keep getting bigger because they eat so much.

The fact that they're so ravenous about those apples makes the snakes so big, and so long, that it drives them to death.

Literally, the purpose of this game is to eat yourself to death all while trying to live as long as is physically possible. Putting the eating to an end is never an option, but putting yourself to death via that eating is the only way this game is ever going to end.

EATING DISORDER: PICA (THE URGE TO EAT NON-FOODS, LIKE DIRT)

Super Muncher is a little green alien/monster creature that serves as the protagonist in a 90s math and grammar learning game series called Super Muncher (where you learn more than just math) and Number Muncher (where you learn math.)

As you learn the different practices of basic elementary school curriculum, you answer the questions so that the Number/Super Muncher can eat them. That's right, this character eats nothing but numbers and concepts. One might say that he doesn't ever even eat real food, just answers and math equations. The thirst for knowledge, is one thing, but it is certainly not enough to power a creature who (eve when he wears a cape) is used to eating such luxuries that he is known by the last name of "Muncher" in a time (anytime before the 90s) where fictional characters were named primarily by their obsessions, hobbies and/or flaws.