American Idol runner-up, Katharine McPhee, has been talking publicly about her five-year battle with bulimia. According to the songstress, she hit rock-bottom when she was throwing up as many as seven times a day. The damage to her vocal cords could have prevented her from even making it to Idol, but after successfully “making it to Hollywood,” she spent three months in group and individual therapy at Los Angeles’s Eating Disorder Center of California. According to McPhee, “When I made it onto American Idol, I knew that food – my eating disorder – was the one thing really holding me back. I was binging my whole life away for days at a time…So when I got on the show, I said, ‘You know what? I can do well in this competition. Let me give myself a chance and just get a hold of this thing.”

People Magazine reports that McPhee has lost 30 lbs., resulting from an approach she learned while at the Eating Disorder Center.  Katharine praises the impact of Idol, saying “That’s why I say American Idol saved my life, because if I hadn’t auditioned I don’t think I would have gotten a handle on food.”