Meal Support

Meal Support in Eating Disorder Treatment and Recovery

Though the spectrum of eating disorders can vary greatly, what all eating disorders have in common is inconsistent eating behaviors and distressing thoughts around food. People with eating disorders tend to avoid or be fearful of eating certain foods. Working with a therapist and registered dietitian trained in eating disorder recovery can help the individuals use skills and coping tools while challenging these foods, gradually making peace with eating and including a wider variety. This can cause increased anxiety and disordered thoughts, as the person is now facing their fear head-on. The goal is through consistent nourishment and exposure to challenging foods and eating scenarios, the individual’s body physically receives consistent nourishment and their distress/anxiety response lowers over time, normalizing the concept of nourishing their body and making peace with food.

What Is Meal Support?

In eating disorder treatment, meal support is a meal or snack eaten with another person or in a group setting with the goal to help the individual meet their recommended meal plan and reduce disordered behaviors around meal times that could prevent them from recovering further. Meal support can be done with a treatment team member, a loved one, or a friend–or all of these! Meal support can even be done virtually; which greatly increases the support options to someone in need.

In an inpatient or residential treatment setting for eating disorders, meal support is highly structured and supervised to assist in ensuring those in the program are eating and their disordered behaviors are confronted immediately. At these levels of care, every meal and snack is supported and supervised daily. As levels of care decrease and a person receives treatment in the outpatient setting, they might only have 1 or 2 sessions per week (or less) with a therapist and dietitian, where meal support is not typically the focus.

While individual work with treatment team members is crucial, much of the effective treatment of eating disorders happens at meal and snack time, challenging feared foods and confronting the eating disorder’s irrational thoughts that occur most prominently during eating. The use of meal support while receiving outpatient care for eating disorder recovery will provide consistent and repeated support and accountability to the individual, which results in more efficient treatment.

How Do I Receive Meal Support?

An eating disorder therapist and dietitian can help train loved ones to assist with at-home meal support. Some sessions with treatment team members can be utilized for meal support or specific challenge foods. Meal support groups also exist as a supplemental tool to use in addition to weekly treatment team sessions. Alo Nutrition just launched a virtual evening meal support group hosted by a registered dietitian that allows participants to discuss topics they might find triggering to their eating disorder and to receive support from peers and a professional, all while completing dinner and challenging their eating disorder. This group is every Wednesday from 5-6PM CST and you can sign up through this link.