Eating Disorders vs. Disordered Eating: Know the Difference
What’s the difference between an eating disorder and disordered eating? Why does it even matter?
Let’s define what these things mean and why it’s important to recognize both eating disorders and disordered eating patterns.
Eating disorders vs. Disordered eating: Why knowing the difference matters
In the last decade or so we’ve continued to see a rise in the number of people being diagnosed with and seeking treatment for an eating disorder.
Due to the stigma surrounding eating disorders and mental health, limited access to proper treatment, and the normalization of harmful behaviors through diet culture, millions of people are likely living with an undiagnosed eating disorder—struggling silently without realizing they need or deserve help.
Stigma, access to care, and cultural normalization
“Eating disorders are not just a “phase,” a choice, or a cry for attention.”
“Eating disorders are not uncommon and they certainly aren’t a minor illness to brush under the rug.”
“Eating disorders are not limited to anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa.”
And…
“Eating disorders do not only affect white females with type A personalities who want to be skinny.”
What are eating disorders?
By definition, an eating disorder is a serious and life-threatening mental illness with medical, nutritional, and psychiatric consequences. Eating disorders often involve an obsession with food, eating, weight, and/or exercise.
Types of Eating Disorders
The currently recognized diagnoses include:
Anorexia nervosa – restricting type and binge-purge type
Bulimia nervosa
Binge eating disorder
Avoidant restrictive feeding and eating disorder (ARFID)
Other specified feeding and eating disorder (OSFED) – which includes:
Atypical anorexia
Orthorexia
Night eating syndrome
Diabulimia
Purging disorder
Bulimia nervosa of low frequency and/or limited duration
Binge eating disorder of low frequency and/or limited duration
To receive an actual diagnosis, someone needs to be seen by a licensed medical or mental health professional.
How serious are eating disorders?
Eating disorders are the second most deadly mental illness, and someone dies from an eating disorder every 52 minutes.
Eating disorders can affect people of any age, skin color, culture, socioeconomic status, or background. And binge eating disorder is actually the most common eating disorder (not anorexia or bulimia).
AND, on a hopeful note, eating disorders are able to be recovered from 100%, especially if treatment is received as early as possible.
What is disordered eating?
The term “disordered eating” describes a range of irregular eating behaviors that may or may not warrant an actual eating disorder diagnosis.
All eating disorders involve disordered eating, but not all disordered eating leads to a full-blown eating disorder.
Disordered eating also refers to any disruption in a normal, healthy relationship with food, eating, exercise, or body image. Obviously this encompasses a lot!
How disordered eating differs from a diagnosed eating disorder
Personally, I believe almost everyone struggles (or has struggled) with some level of disordered eating, whether or not they know it. The problem is that we live in a society absolutely and utterly soaked in diet culture, which normalizes disordered eating patterns and beliefs.
Most of us may not even realize that the way we interact with food, exercise, or our bodies is disordered!
But once you see diet culture and start to recognize disordered eating patterns, you can’t unsee it.
The role of diet culture in disordered eating
Disordered eating and diet culture go hand in hand. Many disordered behaviors are praised as "healthy" in mainstream culture, making them harder to identify and more dangerous to normalize.
Examples of disordered eating behaviors
Examples of disordered eating include:
Frequent dieting (ALL kinds of dieting)
Skipping meals
Cutting out food groups, macronutrients, or specific foods without a medical reason
Having strict rules around eating
Tracking food, calories, or macros
Restricting food to “save up” for a meal or event
Anxiety related to certain foods
Feelings of guilt and shame related to eating
Restrict-binge eating cycles
Obsessively weighing on the scale
Feeling out of control with food and eating
Compensating for what you ate with exercise to “make up for” or “burn off” food
An obsessive relationship with exercise
Any purging via self-induced vomiting, laxative use, diuretic use, or excessive exercise
As you can see, SO many of the behaviors and patterns that our culture says are totally normal or even “healthy” are actually super disordered!
Is dieting disordered eating?
As an eating disorder specialized dietitian I will unashamedly say that I believe dieting is inherently disordered eating.
Dieting is the number one predictor of the development of an eating disorder and will wreak havoc on a person’s relationship with food, exercise, and their body.
We see it in the research. I’ve seen it with my clients. And I’ve experienced it in my own life (Hello, basically doing Weight Watchers with my mom at age 12 and then developing a severe eating disorder…).
When to seek help for disordered eating or an eating disorder
Who to Contact
If you think you struggle with disordered eating, I’ll be honest, you probably do. Asking that question is reason enough to improve your relationship with food. Working with an eating disorder professional will help determine whether or not it could even be a full-blown eating disorder diagnosis.
Even if you don’t have an eating disorder, a non-diet intuitive eating dietitian can help you create a healthier relationship with food, exercise, and your body.
What recovery can look like
Contrary to what diet culture will lead you to believe, you absolutely do not have to spend your life struggling with food and eating.
Disordered eating may be normalized in our culture but it certainly is not normal. Nor does it have to be your normal. Cheers to food freedom and recovery!
Healing from disordered eating or an eating disorder takes time, support, and the right care team. But recovery is not only possible—it is worth it. Whether you’re just starting to question your relationship with food or deep into your recovery journey, know that you are not alone.