Immediately preceding the onset of an eating disorder in a woman, one would most likely find that she is Fat. There are 2 common eating disorders. Anorexia Nervosa which is a psychological and if not treated would be a life threatening disorder. The person suffering this usually have low body weight compared to their height since they do not usually eat as they think they already look fat while the second disorder which is Bulimia nervosa which is binge eating is characterized by self induced vomiting after eating food which they think is many.
A long reflexive pathway has an advantage over a short reflexive pathway in the fact that they can be also be stimulated by the central nervous system, whereas the short reflexive pathway is only stimulated by the enteric nervous system.