Candace Cameron Bure Views Herself as "a Bulimic"

Though the Christian actress no longer binges and purges, she still wrestles with the thoughts.

Candace Cameron Bure address her history of an eating disorder during a recent episode of her podcast. Image: "Candace Cameron Bure: The Podcast"/screenshot from YouTube.

In a moment of public vulnerability, Candace Cameron Bure admits that she began struggling with bulimia when she was 18 years old. Saying that finally talking about it was "like therapy in a way" since one "can come out on the other side," she went on to connect it to the fact that she has long looked at the issue of her body image "through the lens of comparison."

Now 49, the wife and mother of three adult children made the comments in a recent episode of Candace Cameron Bure: The Podcast. The headline star and Chief Content Officer at Great American Media, she got her start in acting as a child, starring in Full House from the age of 11. She stated that though she was a normal looking child at the time, she "had a little more fat" than other actors her age.

With eating disorders being a known problem in the business, her parents were proactive in fostering a healthy diet for her and encouraging regular exercise. The actress says that that approach, however, radically impacted her in an unplanned way.

"That completely shaped the viewpoint that I had about myself and the feelings about my body, knowing, 'Oh, I have to make decisions for what I put in my mouth and how much I exercise because there's a fear that I could develop an eating disorder because I'm on TV, because that's the pressure, and I don't want to be too fat compared to other actors.'"

The bulimia started for her seven years later, and though she was eventually able to stop the binge eating and purging that followed, the issue is not something she has fully put behind her.

"And I still say I'm a bulimic, because the thoughts, whether I'm doing that or not, they never leave me. So, I still need the tools to just say, 'No, Candace, we're not doing that.'"

Bure speaks at length about the issue in the podcast and the discussion is frank and encouraging. You can watch the entire episode below.