A Simon Fraser University researcher has found drinking and dieting are closely related in some young women.

Daniella Sieukaran, who is studying clinical psychology, surveyed nearly 230 York University students between the ages of 17 and 21 over a four month period to better understand “drunkorexia,� the practice of restricting food intake to reserve calories for drinking alcohol.

She found that heavy drinking was more closely associated with dieting than other forms of disordered eating like emotional or impulse eating.

The study, which was presented to the Canadian Psychological Association’s 73rd annual convention this summer, also found that the combination of dieting and drinking excessively led to high-risk activities.

Drinking on an empty stomach can alter the body’s ability to metabolize alcohol and the study unprotected sex and alcohol overdose were related to “drunkorexia.�