Eating Disorders in Our Classrooms: What Every Educator Needs to Know
Eating disorders are dangerous, deadly, and devastating illnesses. They affect every system of the body, often require years of treatment, and too often recur. On average, treatment lasts 6.5 years, and most individuals require multiple levels of care. These illnesses are rarely isolated—over 95% of cases occur alongside other mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, OCD, PTSD, autism, or bipolar disorder.
For adolescents, the picture is especially concerning. Eating disorders are the second leading cause of mental health disability among adolescent girls and young women and carry the second highest mortality rate among all adolescent mental illnesses, second only to drug overdoses. In the last decade alone, the number of pre-teens treated for anorexia nervosa—the rarest of the eating disorders—has doubled.
Research also suggests that Jewish girls and women may be up to twice as likely to struggle with eating disorders as the general population. And in our own classrooms, the calls from parents, teachers, and administrators are increasing. Many of these cases are severe, complicated by co-occurring mental health struggles, and often not caught early enough—making recovery longer, harder, and more expensive.
Why the Classroom Matters:
Eating disorders don’t just affect the individual. They are both competitive and contagious. According to recent research published in JAMA Psychiatry, mental disorders may be “socially transmitted” among adolescent peer groups—with eating disorders, mood disorders, and anxiety disorders being especially vulnerable to this effect.
This means what happens in our classrooms can either increase the risk—or help mitigate it.
What Educators Can Do:
Here are some critical steps teachers and school staff can take to create safer environments for students:
Stop appearance-based compliments. Instead of praising a student’s weight or looks, focus on their talents, abilities, and character.
Avoid talking about dieting or weight loss—even casually among colleagues. Students notice and internalize these messages.
Cultivate gratitude for the body. Encourage students to appreciate their bodies for what they do, not how they look.
Shut down weight-based teasing or judgment immediately.
Challenge diet culture. Thinness does not equal health or worth.
Promote body diversity. Genetics, metabolism, environment, trauma, illness, and more all affect weight. Bodies come in all shapes and sizes.
Encourage joyful movement. Frame exercise as a way to boost mood, reduce stress, and improve sleep—not as punishment or a means to change appearance.
Act early if you suspect a student is struggling. Early intervention dramatically improves recovery outcomes.
The Power of Prevention
The best strategy is prevention. Evidence-based programs can reduce risk factors and increase protective factors. One study found that 76% of students who participated in body confidence education reported feeling more positive about themselves.
But prevention programs must be created with care. They need to be culturally appropriate, sensitive to community values, and implemented during adolescence—when beliefs and behaviors are still forming. Being proactive is far more effective, sustainable, and compassionate than waiting to respond in crisis.
Practical Shifts for the Classroom
Educators can also model healthier, more compassionate behavior day to day
Be a positive role model by embracing a balanced lifestyle.
Reinforce that health and well-being come in all shapes and sizes.
Build self-esteem around talents, kindness, and perseverance—not appearance.
Avoid labeling foods as “good” or “bad.”
Eat alongside students when possible, modeling a healthy relationship with food.
Discuss nutrition as a way to fuel growth, learning, and energy.
Challenge comments about bodies by asking reflective questions:
“Do everyone’s legs/eyes/noses look the same?”
“Do they need to for them to be important or useful?”
And perhaps most importantly—invite students to be allies in creating classrooms where every person feels accepted, safe, and valued.
Moving Forward
Eating disorders are complex, but they are not inevitable. By changing the messages we give our students—about food, about bodies, about self-worth—we can reduce risk, support early intervention, and build stronger, healthier communities.
The classroom is one of the most powerful places we have to interrupt diet culture, stop harmful behaviors from spreading, and plant seeds of resilience, self-compassion, and body confidence.
