The Impact of Meal Support in Eating Disorder Recovery

Eating disorder recovery often involves various components, including therapy, nutrition counseling, and medical support. One crucial aspect of recovery that is frequently overlooked is meal support.

What Is Meal Support in Eating Disorder Recovery?

 Eating in the company of supportive people—whether they’re trained professionals, friends, or family—can be one of the most effective ways to aid long-term eating disorder recovery. More research is showing that having structured meal support offers lasting benefits that go well beyond just the act of eating. Meal support can be an opportunity to practice the skills, exposures, and mindset shifts that make reliable behavior change possible. 

Benefits of Structured Meal Support

Here are a few ways that meal support helps long-term recovery: 

Normalizing Eating Patterns and Reducing Anxiety

During meal support groups, group leaders support building balanced plates and help to model normalized eating behaviors, compassionately redirecting any disordered eating behaviors, such as inappropriate pacing or picking at food.

 Research suggests that the interventions provided during meal support groups help individuals become accustomed to engaging in normalized eating behaviors and the amount and types of food needed to support and sustain recovery.

Additionally, meal support groups offer consistent exposure to challenging meal situations in a safe and encouraging environment. This continued exposure to normalized eating patterns helps reduce anxiety, avoidance, and disordered mealtime behaviors. Research also suggests that meal support groups and repeated positive experiences from these groups help build the evidence that “I can do this” and increase one’s confidence. Eventually, this makes it easier to apply those skills and translate them into everyday life. 

Embracing Connection Through Shared Meals

For many individuals facing eating disorders, mealtimes can feel daunting or lonely. Enjoying meals in the company of others—whether with supportive peers in treatment, treatment team members, or loved ones—can significantly ease those feelings of isolation and foster meaningful connections. By reintegrating the joyful, social aspect of meals, we can shift the focus from the eating disorder thoughts and cognitions to the emotional bonds and shared experiences that food can inspire.

Cultivating Emotional Awareness and Distress Tolerance Skills

Meal support goes beyond “just eating;” it’s about embracing the emotions that arise during mealtimes and identifying patterns around our emotional reactions. By bringing awareness to one’s feelings and emotional patterns at mealtimes, the individual, with support from team members, peers, and loved ones, can start to identify which skills are most effective when experiencing distress related to food.

For example, in meal support groups, starting the group by engaging in a regulating activity, such as box breathing is common. An individual may find that this helps them regulate and utilize distress tolerance skills throughout the meal. This practice can be applied to meals outside of meal support sessions to help individuals feel more regulated and present during mealtimes.

From the support and skills gained in meal support groups, individuals recognize their emotions, utilize distress tolerance skills, and manage discomfort more effectively, enhancing their ability to remain present during mealtimes. 

Long-Term Impact of Meal Support

Meal support fosters enduring, positive behavioral changes by helping individuals adopt normalized eating patterns and apply the knowledge gained during treatment to real-life circumstances and experiences. It highlights the positive impact of the social elements of sharing meals, all while providing a platform to practice essential distress tolerance skills learned during the recovery process. The development of normalized eating patterns, increased confidence, and skills that nourish your body in any situation are the foundations for long-lasting behavior change. 

How to Get Started with Meal Support

If you are interested in participating in meal support groups, please contact [email protected] to get started and reserve your spot.

Citations:

Ellis, A., Gillespie, K., McCosker, L., Hudson, C., Diamond, G., Machingura, T., Branjerdporn, G., & Woerwag-Mehta, S. (2024). Meal support intervention for eating disorders: a mixed-methods systematic review. Journal of eating disorders, 12(1), 47. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-024-01002-2

Lacalaprice, D., Mocini, E., Frigerio, F., Minnetti, M., Piciocchi, C., Donini, L. M., & Poggiogalle, E. (2023). Effects of mealtime assistance in the nutritional rehabilitation of eating disorders. Eating and weight disorders : EWD, 28(1), 73. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-023-01605-9

Monaghan, L. F., Robinson, K., & Small, N. (2022). Eating disorders, recovery and meal support: A qualitative study of service users’ experiences. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 31(2), 331–342. https://doi.org/10.1111/inm.13068