My boyfriend doesn't have a healty relationship with food. He is definitely a binge eater. I can't say I'm much better, but I'm always surprised at the amount he can pack away.

He's a BIG guy. He's six feet four inches tall and built like a transport truck. He's strong. He works in a labour-intensive job. We live in downtown Toronto and don't own a car, so we walk or take public transit everywhere. And he's probably the most hyperactive 26 year old man I know.

But, yes, he is overweight. It's not in his arms or legs, but he has a belly and a bit of a baby face. But, from pictures I've seen of him growing up, he has always been big.

And people don't have a problem telling him. His sister calls him fat every time she sees him, and her son, my boyfriend's nephew, has taken to poking his uncle in the tummy and asking him why he has such a fat belly.

Even his co-workers can't seem to keep their mouths shut about his size (his height, weight, hands, feet -- everything, but he focuses only on the weight), and he takes it to heart.

He stands half-naked in front of the mirror and stares at his stomach, grabbing it and shaking it, saying how gross he is. Always the dutiful girlfriend, I say I find him attractive and so do many other people (which is completely true), so there's no reason for him to feel bad about himself. I suggest that if he's worried about it perhaps we could work together about eating better than we already do and exercising a bit more.

But when we get busy and we have no food in the house, he'll order two large pizzas and eat almost an entire pizza in one sitting, plus potato wedges, plus wings, plus garlic bread, plus beer. I don't know how he fits it in there.

When he's done, he's exhausted and feels sick. But anytime I suggest he hold off on the extra four slices or just throw away the fatty gristle from the pork roast we cooked for dinner, he gets annoyed at me.

Eating disorders, either eating too little or too much, defintely exist in men, especially in our increasingly image-driven society. As much as women are bombarded with images of rail-thin model bodies, so are men. But it's just not discussed, which is a shame, because there are men everywhere who have eating disorders and don't even know it.

My husband was friends with a man who ate a super strict diet (plain skinless chicken breast, plain baked potato) every day, twice a day, which sent up red flares for me. He'd eat "normally" when out, but was very limited when eating at home and compulsively worked out.

The man I call my cute gay boyfriend has also struggled with BDD and an eating disorder. His area of research lies in eating disorders amongst gay men. But while EDs are relatively higher amongst gay men than straight men, it should also be noted that many cases of EDs amongst all men go unreported.

For a good book on EDs and body image issues amongst all men, I'd recommend "The Adonis Complex, The Secret Crises of Male Body Obsession."