Holidays, Eating Disorders, and Food Insecurity: Far More Common Than You Think
As an eating disorders psychologist, I often help clients prepare for the holidays by managing diet and weight loss talk, navigating complicated family dynamics, and coping with the sheer abundance of food that seems to dominate every gathering. For many people with eating disorders, the holidays are already a minefield—filled with pressure, comparison, and loss of routine.
But there is another reality that receives far less attention in conversations about eating disorders during the holidays: food insecurity.
This came into sharp focus for me recently when I asked a Medi-cal client what she and her family planned to do for Thanksgiving. She told me they would be going to church—not because they are religious, but because they would receive a free Thanksgiving meal there. Her response stopped me short. It was a reminder that while some people are overwhelmed by excess during the holidays, others are preoccupied with a much more basic question: Will there be enough food at all?
Food insecurity is a social and economic condition in which individuals or households lack reliable access to sufficient, nutritious food.
It can show up in many ways. Some people live in areas with too few grocery stores to serve the population, often in urban “food apartheid” zones. Others live in rural areas where distance, transportation barriers, or unsafe travel conditions make accessing food difficult. Even when food is available, it may be spoiled or lacking in nutritional value. And for many families, the barrier is purely economic: food exists, but it is simply unaffordable.
Eating Disorders & Poverty: New Research
For years, eating disorder research and training largely ignored poverty, sometimes even framing it as a protective factor against disordered eating. That was the paradigm under which I was trained. That belief was thoroughly dismantled for me in 2017, when I attended a conference that examined eating disorders in marginalized populations. A keynote by Drs. Carolyn Black Becker and Keesha Middlemass presented research showing a clear and troubling link between food insecurity and eating disorders. Their work found that individuals who experienced child hunger had significantly higher rates of binge eating, vomiting, laxative use, and weight concerns.
Importantly, they chose not to collect data on weight or BMI, recognizing that doing so could alienate participants already facing stigma and limited access to medical resources. Their message was clear: our assumptions about who gets eating disorders are deeply flawed—and exclusionary.
How the Holidays Can Intensify Food Insecurity
The holidays can intensify food insecurity. When schools close, many children lose access to free or reduced-price meals. Benefit schedules may not stretch to cover holiday costs. Food pantries become strained just as need increases. For families already living on the edge, this season can bring heightened stress, shame, and disordered eating behaviors driven by scarcity rather than vanity or control.
Marginalized Communities
Food insecurity disproportionately affects communities of color, who are also systematically underrepresented in eating disorder education, diagnosis, and treatment. Research by Vivienne Hazzard and colleagues (published in 2020 and 2022) underscores the urgent need to address food insecurity as a risk factor for eating disorders, not an exception.
If we are serious about supporting people with eating disorders—especially during the holidays—we must widen our lens.
That means acknowledging poverty, dismantling harmful stereotypes, and committing to anti-oppressive training and representation. Healing cannot happen when we ignore the conditions that shape people’s relationships with food in the first place.
The holidays invite us to reflect on gratitude. They should also invite us to reflect on equity—and on whose hunger, suffering, and resilience we’ve been overlooking.
References
Hazzard VM, Loth KA, Hooper L, Becker CB. Food Insecurity and Eating Disorders: a Review of Emerging Evidence. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2020 Oct 30;22(12):74. doi: 10.1007/s11920-020-01200-0. PMID: 33125614; PMCID: PMC7596309.
Zickgraf, H. F., Hazzard, V. M., & O'Connor, S. M. (2022). Food insecurity is associated with eating disorders independent of depression and anxiety: Findings from the 2020–2021 Healthy Minds Study. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 55(3), 354–361.
Thanksgiving and Christmas Meals Struggle for Snap Recipients
Becker CB, Middlemass K, Taylor B, Johnson C, Gomez F. Food insecurity and eating disorder pathology. Int J Eat Disord. 2017 Sep;50(9):1031-1040. doi: 10.1002/eat.22735. Epub 2017 Jun 18. PMID: 28626944.