Food Insecurity in Eating Disorders

Food Insecurity in Eating Disorders

Food insecurity is defined as a lack of consistent access to a sufficient amount of nutritious food. Across the UK, 14% of households experience moderate to severe levels of food insecurity, with this incidence rate being elevated in people with a mental health diagnosis.

The words and experiences featured in this animation were inspired by answers from a survey conducted by the EDIFY programme (a four-year programme of research focused on how we understand and treat eating disorders in young people). To learn more about this survey, visit the EDIFY research website edifyresearch.co.uk/research-gallery. Many thanks to all of the participants for providing such important data on this issue.

‘People cannot take responsibility if they cannot control what happens to them. Most of us cherish the notion of free choice, but our choices are constrained by the conditions in which we are born, grow, live, work and age’ -    Michael Marmot

This work was supported by UK Research and Innovation as part of the EDIFY programme (grant number: MR/W002418/1)

Contributors: Ulrike Schmidt, Helen Sharpe, Heike Bartel, Callum Bryson, Başak İnce Çağlar, Daire Douglas, Amelia Hemmings, Carina Kuehne, Sarah Moody, Jessica Wilkins

More about EDIFY

Eating Disorders: Delineating illness and recovery trajectories to inform personalised prevention and early intervention in young people (EDIFY).

EDIFY is led by Professor Ulrike Schmidt, King’s College London and Dr Helen Sharpe, University of Edinburgh, alongside other academic and third sector partners across the UK. The project has young people’s voices at its heart, with an advisory board of young people affected by eating disorders helping to steer and shape the whole research process. It is one of 7 projects funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) as part of their 'Adolescent Mental Health and the Developing Mind' scheme.