Akiko's Control

Since being introduced to Akiko in My Year of Meats and learning that she has this problem of throwing up her dinner, I keep wondering whether or not it's intentional. As the story goes along, we see that she has a problem with keeping meat down, and we immediately feel sorry for her when her husband insists that she makes the same meat dishes that are being promoted on My American Wife!. We can imagine that meat just doesn't agree with her frail body, and therefore just rejects it, but I can't help but wonder if there isn't some form of control that she has over the situation. She is obviously depressed, and the thought of her having an eating disorder isn't very far fetched to me. She has a husband who controls more or less every aspect of her life, and she doesn't seem to have any friends. She doesn't have a very strong motivation to take control of her life or undermine her husband's assumed authority over her. Throwing up her food seems to be the only thing that brings her some form of comfort, even though it's causing her body to waste away and her menstrual cycles to dry up. She doesn't seem opposed to the idea of having a baby, but doesn't exactly long for one either, like Jane did. Maybe this is the only part of her marriage that she could possibly have some form of control over, and so she keeps on throwing up so she won’t gain enough weight to get her periods back. The doctor she visited even told her that her bad attitude was probably to blame. As much as I hate the fact that this would play right into "John's" views of his wife and his blaming her for all their strife, maybe this contains a grain of truth. Another thing that plays into this idea is that Akiko got her period back after she started keeping the meat down which only happened after her husband insisted that she never be in the bathroom with the door closed. She no longer had the privacy; her indulgence was no longer comforting once her secret was out.
Having said this, I certainly don't blame her for wanting to save something for herself, even if it's an unhealthy eating disorder. As the reader, I want her to do something more productive, like kick her husband in the junk and leave his alcoholic ass, but here is where I imagine cultural views and gender roles get in the way of Akiko seeing any way out. So she stays, holding onto this little secret, that unfortunately doesn't remain a secret for long.
This is all just speculation, and for all I know I could be way off base. However, I'm curious to know if anyone else wondered the same thing while they were reading?