GLP-1 Medications, Food Noise, and the Risks Behind the Cultural Moment
GLP-1 medications were developed to treat type 2 diabetes, but they have since migrated into mainstream weight loss culture with a speed that outpaced any serious public conversation about what they do and who they were designed for. Along with this rapid expansion has come a new term—”food noise”—used to describe the persistent mental preoccupation…
Subtle Signs Of An Eating Disorder, Part 1: Food Rules
TL; DR Eating disorders don’t always appear dramatic or obvious. Many people experience subtle, normalized behaviors that quietly restrict flexibility, increase anxiety around food, and weaken trust in hunger cues. These disordered food rules can exist even if weight seems stable or eating looks “normal” from the outside. Maybe you haven’t lost an excessive amount…
Managing Fear Foods: Developing An “All Foods Fit” Mentality
Whether you are on a diet or struggle with an eating disorder, you probably have a list of foods that you’re comfortable eating. You probably also have a list of foods to avoid at all costs. These are also known as safe foods and fear foods. Eating Disorders and Control: Sticking to Safe Foods As…
Bulimia Nervosa Symptoms And Effective Treatments
TL;DR Bulimia nervosa is a serious eating disorder involving cycles of binge eating followed by behaviors meant to compensate, such as vomiting, laxatives, fasting, or excessive exercise. These patterns are often hidden and driven by shame, body image distress, and emotional coping difficulties. Treatable with therapy, nutrition support, and team-based care, Bulimia nervosa (usually shortened…
Returning to Work After Eating Disorder Treatment: 4 Tools for a Sustainable Transition
“How long will this take?” is often one of the first questions asked when someone enters treatment for an eating disorder. And while it’s tempting to pin down a definitive timeline for recovery that is tied to the length of a treatment stay, the reality is that discharge from a program does not mean the…
The Weight of the Waiting Room: Navigating Stigma and Self-Advocacy in Medical Settings
For many individuals in eating disorder recovery, the most taxing part of the journey doesn’t happen at the dining table. Instead, it occurs in the sterile environment of a doctor’s office. There is a clinical term for the fluttering heart, the shallow breathing, and the knots in the stomach that appear days before a medical…
The Architecture of Nourishment: From Meal Plans to Meaning.
In the early stages of recovery, the relationship with food is often characterized by noise. This includes the internal noise of the disorder, the influence of external diet culture, and the confusing static of a body that has lost its ability to signal its own needs. When internal cues like hunger and fullness are offline,…
The Hidden Link Between ADHD and Binge Eating
When people think about ADHD, they think about attention, focus, and hyperactivity. Binge eating rarely enters the conversation, and when it does, it tends to get explained away as impulsivity or emotional eating, a narrative that obscures what the research is actually showing. Among those with bulimia nervosa, ADHD prevalence ranges from 15 to 54%,…
Eating Disorders in Autistic Individuals
When most people think about autism and eating, they think about ARFID. It makes sense — avoidant restrictive food intake disorder is the diagnosis most commonly associated with neurodivergent eating patterns, and the connection is real. But it’s far from the whole picture. Research tells us that approximately 23% of autistic individuals meet criteria for…
Predisposition Is Not Destiny: Genetics, Environment, and How Eating Disorders Develop
Can you be born with an eating disorder? It is a question clinicians hear often, reflecting a search for explanation or concern about family risk. The short answer is no: eating disorders are not present at birth in the way congenital conditions are. But that answer alone misses what research has made increasingly clear. Many…