(Image: tokyo mental health)

I couldn't help but wonder: why did the girl who struggled to focus without medication also seem to have such a complicated relationship with food?

Science has a rather twisted answer to our concerns.

ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and Eating Disorders end up together far more often than anyone could predict. One meta-analysis found that people with ADHD have about 4.3 times the risk of anorexia, 5.7 times for bulimia, and 4.1 times for BED (Binge Eating Disorders). 

But what if we flipped the question? How many people receiving treatment for eating disorders also experience symptoms of ADHD? The answer reveals a striking overlap. One clinic study found self-reported symptoms in 35% to 37% of people with bulimia or binge-purge type anorexia, 26% to 31% percent in BED, and just above 18% percent in restricting-type anorexia. A 2025 scoping review of 29 studies found that 13 prevalence studies suggest autism and ADHD show up more in BN and BED than in people without eating disorders.

Patients with Bulimia are the most targeted ones. One review found moderate to strong evidence linking ADHD to bulimia symptoms, and moderate evidence for overeating and BED. The same review found consistent evidence that it's the impulsivity side of ADHD doing the heavy lifting here, not the whole package. In the Stockholm clinic data, self-reported ADHD symptoms hit 35% to 37% in bulimia, the highest of any group alongside binge/purge-type anorexia, which suggests the bingeing and purging matter more than the label.

The leading theory is that high trait impulsivity feeds the loss of control and the urge to binge in BED. And here's the plot twist: that impulsivity doesn't seem to be just about food. It looks like a general trait. So it's less "I can't resist cake" and more "this is how my brain handles the pull of"

Studies point to unusual activity in the prefrontal cortex (the planner) and the striatum (the one focused on feelings) in BED. The encouraging part: the activity seems to normalize with treatment. The exact mechanics are still a mystery ready to be uncovered.

The only FDA-approved drug for BED, approved in 2015, is lisdexamfetamine. Yes, an ADHD medication. A meta-analysis of five randomized trials (988 participants) found it cut binge-eating days by about 1.3 per week versus placebo. It likely works through a mix of appetite and satiety effects, reward, and cognitive stuff like attention and impulse control. Which, you have to admit, is a pretty big hint.

Treating both at once isn't simple. Stimulants can calm ADHD symptoms but tend to suppress appetite, which is a real problem when eating is already restricted.In those cases, the clinical guidance I found suggests stabilizing the eating disorder first.

Most of the data is cross-sectional or self-reported, so it shows association, not cause. Who's driving the car? Unclear. The 2025 scoping review found no studies on patient experiences, or on clinical differences between people with and without ADHD. Treatment discussion leaned heavily on medication over therapy. Prevalence numbers are all over the map. One adolescent ADHD sample found binge eating in 9.3 percent, another reported 54.9 percent. Anorexia research has mostly looked at autism rather than ADHD, and BN and BED have gotten less attention overall.

Ultimately, ADHD and disordered eating are clearly in each other's orbit, and impulsivity and reward are the best clues we have. But the direction and the cause are still an open question.

This is a research summary, not medical advice. If you're navigating both, a clinician who can see the whole picture is the right person to make treatment calls. And if you'd like, I can dig into genetics, treatment options, or how this plays out differently in kids versus adults.

Works Cited:

Berner, L. A., and R. Marsh. “Frontostriatal Circuits and the Development of Bulimia Nervosa.” Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, vol. 8, 2014, article 395, https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00395. Accessed 4 Sept. 2026.

Biederman, J., et al. “Are Girls with ADHD at Risk for Eating Disorders? Results from a Controlled, Five-Year Prospective Study.” Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, vol. 28, 2007, p. 302. Accessed 4 Sept. 2026.

Bleck, J., and R. D. DeBate. “Exploring the Co-morbidity of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder with Eating Disorders and Disordered Eating Behaviors in a Nationally Representative Community-Based Sample.” Eating Behaviors, vol. 14, no. 3, 2013, pp. 390–393. Accessed 4 Sept. 2026.

Donnelly, B., et al. “Neuroimaging in Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorder: A Systematic Review.” Journal of Eating Disorders, vol. 6, 2018, article 3. Accessed 4 Sept. 2026.

Fernández-Aranda, F., et al. “ADHD Symptomatology in Eating Disorders: A Secondary Psychopathological Measure of Severity?” BMC Psychiatry, vol. 13, 2013, article 166. Accessed 4 Sept. 2026.

Mikami, A. Y., et al. “Eating Pathology among Adolescent Girls with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.” Journal of Abnormal Psychology, vol. 117, no. 1, 2008, pp. 225–235. Accessed 4 Sept. 2026.

(Image: Live Science)

Somewhere between the invention of the smoothie bowl and the 50th "what I eat in a day" video, we collectively agreed that eating pasta,bread or baked goods is now a personality flaw. Here we are, watching a 24-year-old eat "clean" cottage cheese ice cream at 6 a.m instead of a nourishing meal. 

I want to talk about how we got here, because I don't think it's really about food. It's about what we engage with.

Algorithm-driven platforms like TikTok and Instagram don't just show you content-they figure out what keeps your thumb still and then serve you more of it, forever. Restriction, it turns out, is extremely watchable. A woman eating 900 calories of "girl dinner" arranged like a still-life painting performs better than a guy eating leftover pasta out of the pot, standing up, at 11 p.m., which-let's be honest-is the actual median human eating experience. The algorithm doesn't care whether a video is good for you. It cares whether you watch it twice. And restrictive eating, dressed up in soft lighting and the word "wellness," is basically catnip for the feed: it's visual, it's moralized,it implies a before-and-after and it makes you feel like you are doing food wrong (whatever that means).

This is where "what I eat in a day" videos deserve a little scrutiny, because they present themselves as documentary and function as advertising. They're rarely a full, honest account of a day of eating-a curated highlight reel, edited for aesthetics, sometimes filmed on the one day someone ate like that, sometimes not even eaten in that order, sometimes just... aspirational fiction.And the diets themselves cycle through with the speed of light: carnivore, then "what I eat as a low-histamine girlie," then raw milk, then whatever comes next by the time you finish reading this sentence. Each one shows up wearing the word "wellness" like a costume, which is a neat trick because it lets restriction hide in plain sight, protected from criticism by its own vocabulary.Nobody wants to be the person who's "against wellness."

The stats back it up. One review found eating disorder risk climbed more than 13% among young people between 2013 and 2021-right alongside the platforms we're talking about.Teens are now averaging something like 4.8 hours a day on social media, with 95% of U.S. adolescents on at least one platform. In one study of 16-to-25-year-olds, nearly 46% of people who frequently compared their bodies to what they saw online reported heightened eating-disorder risk. Another study found people who used social media more heavily had five times the odds of screening at-risk for disordered eating compared to lighter users. And separately, researchers have shown that restrictive dieting itself-not just body dissatisfaction-is one of the strongest predictors of that risk. 

Here's the part where I confess: I have absolutely opened the fridge, looked at a completely normal snack, and thought "this isn't very wellness girl of me" before eating it anyway, standing over the sink, like a raccoon. I think most of us have a version of this. We've all paused mid-bite because we pictured how it would look filmed. That's the tell that something's off- when your internal monologue starts narrating your own snack like it's being reviewed by an audience that doesn't exist.

Because here's the thing the aesthetic content never shows you: actual eating is messy. It's toast crumbs on the counter, it's the sad desk salad,it's cereal for dinner because you're tired, it's a huge plate of food shared badly-lit with people you love.The gap between the feed and real life isn't a flaw in your eating-it's a flaw in the feed's business model.Perfectly plated minimalism gets saved and shared: a normal Tuesday lunch does not.

So what do you actually do with this, besides feel vaguely surveilled by your own For You page? Mostly: notice it. Notice when a video is making you feel bad about something you were fine with ten minutes ago-that's usually the algorithm working exactly as designed,not a sign your diet needs fixing.Follow a few accounts that just show food being ordinary and good. And every so often, mute the narrator in your head and just eat the bagel. It was never the problem.

Works Cited:

Dane, Alexandra, and Komal Bhatia. "The Social Media Diet: A Scoping Review to Investigate the Association Between Social Media, Body Image and Eating Disorders Amongst Young People." PLOS Global Public Health, vol. 3, no. 3, 22 Mar. 2023, e0001091, doi:10.1371/journal.pgph.0001091. Accessed 21 Aug. 2026.

Daly, Michael, and Erin Costigan. "Trends in Eating Disorder Risk Among U.S. College Students, 2013-2021." Psychiatry Research, vol. 317, Nov. 2022, doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2022.114882. Accessed 21 Aug. 2026.

National Eating Disorders Association. "Media and Eating Disorders." National Eating Disorders Association, www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/media-and-eating-disorders/. Accessed 21 Aug. 2026.

Celeste et al. "The association between social comparison in social media, body image concerns and eating disorder symptoms: A systematic review and meta-analysis" Body Image, Elsevier, 2024, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1740144524001633. Accessed 21 Aug. 2026.

Peréz-Jiménez M, Uclés-Torrente MDM, Ruiz-Gamarra GE, Vaquero-Álvarez M, Blancas-Sánchez IM, Aparicio-Martínez P, Vaquero-Abellán M. Social Media Consumption and Risk of Addiction Associated with Adolescent Disordered Eating Behaviour: An Observational Analysis. Nutrients. 2025 Sep 21;17(18):3017. doi: 10.3390/nu17183017. PMID: 41010542; PMCID: PMC12472393. Accessed 21 Aug. 2026.