The eating spectrum isn’t just theory - it’s something I’ve walked through myself. In this article, I unpack what each stage can look like, and why recognising the messy middle matters for practitioners supporting clients with food struggles.
* Content Note on Lived Experience *
Before we go further, I want to acknowledge that in this article I share some of my own lived experience with disordered eating. While I don’t go into graphic detail, please take care while reading and pause or close the window if you need to.
It’s also important to say: sharing lived experience is not something every practitioner needs to do. Many excellent clinicians choose not to, and their work is no less valid or powerful. Personally, I share parts of my story because it helps to reduce stigma, to show that recovery is possible, and to remind us that the eating spectrum is not just theory - it’s something I’ve walked through myself, and it definitely shapes the way I practice today.
* Content Note on Lived Experience *
Before we go further, I want to acknowledge that in this article I share some of my own lived experience with disordered eating. While I don’t go into graphic detail, please take care while reading and pause or close the window if you need to.
It’s also important to say: sharing lived experience is not something every practitioner needs to do. Many excellent clinicians choose not to, and their work is no less valid or powerful. Personally, I share parts of my story because it helps to reduce stigma, to show that recovery is possible, and to remind us that the eating spectrum is not just theory - it’s something I’ve walked through myself, and it definitely shapes the way I practice today.
As naturopaths, herbalists, and holistic practitioners, many of us see clients who are quietly struggling with food. But here’s the tricky thing: they rarely walk in and say, “I think I have an eating disorder!”
Instead, they show up with gut issues, fatigue, hormonal symptoms, or weight / body image concerns. If we’re not careful, the way we respond can either help them move toward healing, or unintentionally push them further into disordered eating.
The truth is, disordered eating is far more common than diagnosed eating disorders. According to the National Eating Disorders Collaboration (NEDC), disordered eating behaviours - things like restrictive dieting, compulsive exercise, and binge eating - occur on a continuum and affect a much larger proportion of the population than clinical eating disorders (NEDC, 2019). Research suggests that while around 10% of Australians will experience a diagnosable eating disorder in their lifetime, many more engage in disordered eating behaviours - with studies showing rates as high as 60% of adolescent girls and nearly 30% of adolescent boys reporting behaviours like dieting, bingeing, or purging at some point (NEDC, 2019).
International studies show similar trends, with dieting and disordered eating behaviours affecting a large proportion of adults as well (Neumark-Sztainer et al., 2006). Disordered eating symptoms have risen sharply in recent decades. Between the late 1990s and mid-2000s, the prevalence of weekly binge eating more than doubled, while strict dieting and purging behaviours increased nearly fourfold, alongside declines in quality of life (Preti et al., 2009).
This all means that most of our clients are not in a happy, healthy place with their eating, food, and bodies, and it's only a minority that have diagnosed eating disorders. Many folks are sitting in that messy middle zone. And this is exactly where practitioners can either cause harm or provide vital support.
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