Eating Disorders Resources

We all need to eat to stay alive. It is important that the food we eat provides a balanced diet which meets all our nutritional needs. However, sometimes our relationship with food becomes unbalanced or unhealthy and this can lead to eating disorders.

An eating disorder is a symptom of a much bigger problem. It is usually associated with our body image, our self-consciousness, our sense of identity and our inner self-esteem. The most common eating disorders are:

• Bulimia — binge eating followed by purging
• Anorexia nervosa — abnormally low weight due to distorted body image and warped weight perception
• Binge eating — eating excessively huge amounts of food in a short space of time
• Orthorexia — an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating & exercise
• Food addiction — compulsive consumption of certain foods (usually high fat/high sugar)

As with all mental health conditions, eating disorders have a variety of causes including:

• Negative body image
• Hormone problems
• Low self-esteem
• Being required to lose or put on weight due to a certain profession (ballet, horse racing, gymnastics, wrestling, rowing etc)
• Family problems, unhappy childhood or trauma
• Dramatic life changes (starting school/university, divorce, major illness or injury)
• Grief (death of a loved one, job loss)
• Pressure to look a certain way due to artificial representations in the media

Eating disorders also have a wide range of symptoms including:

• Obsession with calorie-counting and food content
• Depression
• Weight fluctuation
• Avoidance of social events and family gatherings
• Chronic dieting
• Fixation with exercise
• Bizarre eating patterns — only eating certain foods

Eating Disorders Resource Packs

Eating Disorders Lesson Plans

Healthy Eating
(lesson plan)

This lesson plan covers healthy eating, different food types and how to develop a healthy diet.

£2.99

Hard copy: £10.99 add to basket

Eating Disorders Topics

The eating disorders topics we produce resources for include:

• Symptoms of eating disorders
• Types of eating disorders
• Relationship with food
• Causes of eating disorders

Eating Disorders Support for Schools

We publish eating disorders resources to support schools by providing help and guidance in an educational format. Our resource packs give the information in a sensitive way that informs as well as educates.

Eating Disorders Support for Teachers

Our eating disorders resources for teachers include eating disorders resource packs that cover a variety of issues as well as our lesson plans on eating disorders.

Eating Disorders Support for Students

Teaching students about eating disorders is important. Our aim is to produce resource packs that provide information and knowledge of eating disorders in a sensitive way.

Eating disorders blog articles