Eating Disorder Awareness Week 2026
Supporting eating disorder researchThis Eating Disorder Awareness Week, support MQ Mental Health Research. At MQ, we fund research not only to understand mental health, but to prevent mental illness before it starts. Your donation helps drive vital solutions for eating disorders and supports better outcomes for those affected.
What is an Eating Disorder?
An eating disorder is when a person has an unhealthy relationship with food, which can take over their life and make them ill. It commonly starts in young people aged 13 to 17 years old.
Eating disorders can take many forms - from not eating enough, to episodes of binge eating that may be followed by guilt or harmful behaviours to control weight.
Visit this page to gain a further in-depth understanding of eating disorders.
Facts and Figures
How Many People Suffer From Eating Disorders?
Beat estimates that 1.25 million people in the UK have an eating disorder
How Many People Are Affected By Eating Disorders Each Year?
725,000 people are affected by eating disorders each year in the UK
What Are the Stats For Men and Women?
Women are more than twice as likely to have an eating disorder than men. Though, it is estimated 1 in 4 men suffer from eating disorders, the actual number may be higher due to men facing increased stigma and there is a lack of representation, with research only including cisgender men.
Can Eating Disorders Change?
It's possible that a mental illness can shift and change throughout life, and eating disorders are not an exception. Take a look at Juliette Burton's blog, where she explains how her eating disorders have morphed into different manifestations throughout her life.
Different Types of Eating Disorders
Anorexia Nervosa
By not eating enough food or exercising too much, people with this condition keep their weight down. This could cause them to starve their body of essential nutrients, which can make them very ill.
Bulimia Nervosa
By bingeing (going through periods of eating a lot of food quickly) and then getting rid of the calories in unhealthy ways, people with this condition can make themselves sick, use laxatives, exercise too much, or take medication or use diet supplements.
Binge-eating Disorder
This is where some people regularly eat large portions of food all at once until they feel uncomfortably full, and then often feel guilty or upset.
OSFED
Other specified feeding or eating disorder (OSFED) means they don’t have all the typical symptoms of one of the types above.
ARFID
Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) is when someone avoids certain foods, limits how much they eat or does both.
Lived Experience
Research Experience
If you or someone you know is suffering from an eating disorder then please visit Beat, who can provide help and advice
Donate
When you donate, you're supporting groundbreaking research to help us better understand, effectively treat and ultimately one day even prevent serious mental illness.
Without this vital research, It's just guesswork as to how we can better help the 1 in 4 of us impacted by mental illness.
Where does your money go?
It’s spent on research projects at some of the world's top institutions. You will be supporting studies in psychology, neuroscience, data science, sociology, psychiatry and more.
With your help, we can find solutions for people living with various types of mental illnesses, such as eating disorders, both now and in the future.
Raise Money For Mental Health Research
Choose your own adventure and raise money for mental health research. You can do this by swimming, cycling, running, or conquering an obstacle course.
You can simply to donate to MQ and help support the future of mental health research. Supporting ground breaking research to help us better understand, effectively treat and ultimately one day even prevent serious mental illness.
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