LOS ANGELES, June 22 (UPI) -- Katharine McPhee, who finished second this season on the U.S. TV show "American Idol," says it was her victory over bulimia that really mattered.
The woman who "Idol" judge Simon Cowell called "the best of the competition" details her five-year battle with her eating disorder in the new issue of People magazine.
"I knew I had put off going to a treatment center long enough -- I'd been struggling with bulimia since I was 17," McPhee said. "Growing up in Los Angeles and spending all those years in dance class, I'd been conscious of body image at a young age, and I went through phases of exercising compulsively and starving myself. ... Food was my crutch; it was how I dealt with emotions and uncomfortable situations."
The 22-year-old singer was enrolled for three months at the Eating Disorder Center of California, where she said she managed to gain control over the eating disorder.
