Eating Disorder Quotes For Better Health

These eating disorder quotes are informative, encouraging, and sometimes startling.

Have you or someone you know been impacted by an eating disorder?

More people are influenced by eating disorders than you probably realize.

According to the American Addiction Center, many myths exist regarding eating disorders.

For example, many people associate anorexia or bulimia with the most prevalent eating disorder.

In reality, anorexia and bulimia are very well known.

However, less than 2 percent of the US population has true anorexia.

In fact, according to data collected from The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, binge eating disorder is the most common eating disorder in the country.

People suffering from this form of disease lose control over their eating, but they do not engage in the purging behaviors that bulimics are known for.

Nor do they exhibit the body dysmorphia that manifests in anorexic people.

If you like this article, we suggest you explore our most popular quotes article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily encouragement. 

Check out more inspirational quotes on our motivational quotes category page.

Eating disorder quotes that show how it can happen to anyone

1. “This is not a teenage girls’ disease.” — Candace Cameron Bure

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2. “Restriction is the gateway to eating disorders.” — Chevese Turner

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3. “I’d look in the mirror and still see a 180-lb. guy, even though I was 138 pounds.” — Dennis Quaid

4. “Even the models we see in magazines wish they could look like their own images.” ― Cheri K. Erdman

5. “The beauty myth is always actually prescribing behavior and not appearance.”― Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth

6. “Eating disorders are dangerous at any age, and they become especially dangerous when there are delays in getting help.” — Pamela Keel, Ph.D.

7. “This disorder doesn’t discriminate. It affects 30 million people in the United States alone, both men and women of all different ages.” — Candace Cameron Bure

8. “Eating disorders are a life-threatening illness that can affect anyone. It doesn’t matter your age, your sex, your ethnicity. Eating disorders don’t discriminate.” — Kesha

9. “At least 10% of the population are struggling with an eating disorder, disordered eating, and or body image.” — National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD)

10. “The anorexic operates under the astounding illusion that she can escape the flesh, and, by association, the realm of emotions.” ― Marya Hornbacher, Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia

Eating disorder quotes about recovery and treatment

11. “I won’t let a number on a scale own me.” — Anonymous

12. “[Recovery] feels like having to learn how to walk all over again.” — Portia de Rossi

13. “It’s very important to seek treatment early for eating disorders.” — Cynthia Bulik, Ph.D.

14. “Remember that it’s okay to get help, and it doesn’t make you weak.” — Lauren Alaina

15. “I intend to accept my body today love my body tomorrow and appreciate my body always.” — Anonymous

16. “It’s very hard to let go of an eating disorder, to say: ‘I’m enough, I don’t need that anymore. I’m past that.’” — Evanna Lynch

17. “Asking for help is never a sign of weakness. It’s one of the bravest things you can do. And it can save your life.” — Lily Collins

18. “I think the hardest part to get to is that point of asking for help or reaching out to other people and being honest with yourself.” — Mary-Kate Olsen

19. “The first step is exposing that secret and that struggle, and you have to take that first step before you can find freedom.” — Candace Cameron Bure

20. “Recovery doesn’t mean your life magically becomes perfect and happy all the time, but it helps you recognize that you have the strength and resilience within you to handle the good and the bad that comes with life.” — Beth Pilcher, LISW-CP

What having an eating disorder can do to you

21. “Not giving your body enough of what it needs is really dangerous.” — Hilary Duff

22. “To lose confidence in one’s body is to lose confidence in oneself.” ― Simone de Beauvoir

23. “Toxic nutrition messaging is more harmful for your health than food will ever be.” — Anna Sweeney, MS, RD, LDN, CEDRD-S

24. “If you’re hungry in any way, physically or emotionally hungry, you’re never going to be functioning 100 percent.” — Lily Collins

25. “I will never get my full health back because of what society taught me to do to my body, and I don’t want that to happen to you.” — Jameela Jamil

26. “Everyone kept asking me if I wanted to die. Well, no. No, I didn’t want to die. But no one ever asked me if I wanted to live.” — Brittany Burgunder

27. “You may feel like it is helping you deal with life’s problems, but actually it is avoiding you from tackling those problems head-on. Don’t confuse distraction with tackling.” — Amalie Lee

28. “Your eating disorder may help numb the uncomfortable emotions that you don’t want to feel, but it also numbs the positive ones, and convinces you that you can’t handle life without it.” — Beth Pilcher, LISW-CP

29. “I now view food as energy for my mind and body rather than something to be scared of. It’s fuel, not punishment. Because without it, I can’t grow stronger, emotionally, mentally, and physically.” — Lily Collins

30. “I battled with many eating disorders and body issues as a younger girl and it took me a long time to find self love and acceptance! Trust me, all of that pain and destruction I inflicted on myself wasn’t worth it.” — Ireland Baldwin

Inspirational eating disorder quotes

31. “I am more than the shell for my soul that is my body and every day I fight to remind myself of that.” — Demi Lovato

32. “The most important thing we can do is not only admit it to ourselves but then to reach out for that help.” — Candace Cameron Bure

33. “If you have an eating disorder, but are not being clinically supported, your story matters. You matter.” — Anna Sweeney, MS, RD, LDN, CEDRD-S 

34. “People who struggle with atypical anorexia may not always appear sick, but their symptoms are as valid as those of individuals who have anorexia.” — Eating Disorder Hope

35. “I am angry that I starved my brain and that I sat shivering in my bed at night instead of dancing or reading poetry or eating ice cream or kissing a boy.” ― Laurie Halse Anderson

36. “Living with an eating disorder takes extraordinary fortitude. And when that energy can be circumvented in a different way, incredible things happen.” — Anna Sweeney, MS, RD, LDN, CEDRD-S

37. “You are not a mistake. You are not a problem to be solved. But you won’t discover this until you are willing to stop banging your head against the wall of shaming and caging and fearing yourself.” — Geneen Roth

38. “For some, [binge eating disorder] is a coping mechanism to manage emotional distress, therefore it’s important to understand where the drive to use food for comfort is coming from.” — Yasi Ansari, MS, RDN, CSSD

39. “But it’s never too late to start improving yourself and trying to be the best version of YOU possible. It’s not a race, and it’s not a competition—it’s about respecting yourself and doing what’s best for YOU.” — Rebel Wilson

40. “One thing I have come to notice in my life is that recovery for me has not been linear. It’s more two steps forward, three back, five forward, two back, so I’m always improving but there are setbacks within the improvement.” — Jonathan Van Ness

Eating disorder quotes to help you better understand

41. “Do I want to die from the inside out or the outside in?” ― Laurie Halse Anderson, Wintergirls

42. “I am forever engaged in a silent battle in my head over whether or not to lift the fork to my mouth.” ― Jena Morrow

43. “If you can’t tell someone they look nice without making it about their size, then baby, please don’t say nuthin at all.” — Tess Holliday

44. “I had no idea how broken the eating disorder community is. I had no idea how few resources there are for people like me.” — Tess Holliday

45. “I know this rigidity, this feeling that if you eat one thing that’s wrong, you’re full of self-loathing and then you punish yourself.” — Katie Couric

46. “People with eating disorders often have other mental disorders such as depression, or anxiety, or problems with substance use.” — Cynthia Bulik, Ph.D.

47. “You’re never going to be feeling like the best version of yourself and then you’re not living the life that you should be and the best life that you can.” — Lily Collins

48. “Eating disorders are mental illnesses. You cannot tell if someone has an ED by looking only at how they eat, what they eat, how much they weigh.” — Zeynep Demirelli, MSc.

 49. “Complimenting someone on their weight loss can be as harmful as complimenting someone on their weight gain in regards to talking to someone in recovery from an eating disorder.” — Demi Lovato

50. “Diet culture interrupts our relationships with food and body even further if there is already a problem and can be the beginning of disordered eating when there was previously not a problem.” — Chevese Turner

More information about eating disorders

Overall, eating disorders affect 10 percent of the population at large.

This means that almost 29 million Americans will experience an eating disorder in their lifetime.

When people hear that information, they often provide their own context to it.

Most Americans are familiar with bulimia and anorexia.

This results in a popular but inaccurate assumption of what is impacting most people.

However, less than 6 percent of people with eating disorders are medically diagnosed as “underweight,” while obesity rates increase.

American actress Candace Cameron Bure reminds us that contrary to the limited beliefs of some people, “This is not a teenage girls’ disease.”

Indeed, eating disorders impact people of all races, ages, and statuses.

Interestingly, eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. Meaning that nearly 1 person dies every hour because of an eating disorder.

Do you want to share your story with us? You can use the comment section below!