Red canoffer hope by enabling access to support services to empower recovery

REDCAN agencies are focused on early intervention, prevention and community support for eating distress and eating disorders. We want to see people have support as soon as possible and get well rapidly.

This specialist support work is an essential complement to NHS treatment provided for people who are very unwell. Agencies work closely with local NHS eating disorder services.

Agencies work with a very wide range of people experiencing eating disorders. Charities are commissioned by local Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to provide expert early and community support for particular age groups, such as children, young people and adults.

Members run groups and training for family members and friends, helping them support their loved ones. When families and friends can provide the right support, this can be a key element of helping people to recover from eating disorders and distress. 

REDCAN's charities develop and provide support services where there may be local NHS gaps: for example, most often around Binge Eating Disorder (BED) and Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID).

Some charities provide specialist support for students at colleges and universities.

Finally, outreach and training workers can go into schools, workplaces, universities and beyond to train other professionals to prevent and spot eating distress.

Through REDCAN, member charities' specialist staff meet regularly through forums to discuss clinical practice, common issues, new research and policy work. We share data to understand and demonstrate our collective impact, and see who we reach with our support. Agencies collaborate to improve eating disorder services and support through practice and policy change, linking up our work with NHS treatment. Together we make the case for more national investment in early intervention and prevention of eating disorders. 

Early intervention should be the norm when someone starts to experience eating distress. But our system is about crisis intervention. Too many people get treatment only when they have become really ill. It's considerably harder to treat eating disorders the longer they go on. And it's much easier to recover when you get help quickly.

Eating disorders are on the rise across the UK. NHS treatment services are under pressure, and people without a formal diagnosis often struggle to get help. Our charities make a huge difference to people where we work, but often have short-term contracts and can't work with everyone that needs support. And large areas of the UK don't have any affordable, early intervention, community-based eating disorder support.  

That's why we want to see the system change. We want more investment in prevention and early intervention. Specialist charities should be commissioned throughout the UK as part of an all-ages, comprehensive pathway of eating distress and eating disorder support and treatment. We take the pressure off local NHS services because people get well sooner, and we can make the right referrals if people do become unwell.

Australia’s national eating disorder strategy takes a joined-up approach to prevention and treatment, recognising that eating disorders are "everyone’s business". The UK could take a similar approach.

All three terms describe psychological difficulties with food or eating that can stop people from enjoying their lives and being able to participate in everyday activities. The terms are used differently by different people, and they may have different meanings depending on context. 

Eating distress describes any relationship with food, weight, shape or eating that someone finds distressing.

NHS specialist teams may diagnose someone with an eating disorder illness, using clinical mental and physical health criteria to do so. However, some people will never be diagnosed formally. For example, people may not show up in the NHS, or diagnostic criteria do not capture their experiences. 

Some use 'disordered eating' as a focus on behaviour that suggests someone has a relationship to food, weight, shape and eating that they find distressing.

All three touch on thoughts and behaviour which can include: persistent or intrusive thoughts about food or weight; having personal rules about food that make it hard to eat, whether in company or alone; not eating enough food to thrive; regular episodes of not being able to stop eating; being sick, using laxatives or other medicine to get rid of food or keep weight down; compulsive exercise; urges to body check.

Some eating distress and eating disorders are linked to sensory experiences of food or fear of being sick, while others are focused on ideas around weight, health and body image. Some overlap.

Eating disorders can have serious mental and physical health consequences. Yet recovery is common and possible with the right support.

Many people with eating distress and eating disorders feel shame due to stigma and misinformation. They are never your fault.

Really common.

3.5 million people in the UK may have eating disorders, statisticians working with charity BEAT found this year (2026). That would be one in every 20 people, or about five per cent of the UK population. 

Other data suggests binge eating disorder (BED) is the most common eating disorder, followed by OSFED and bulimia. Anorexia affects fewer than one in ten people with eating disorders, while much more research is needed on ARFID.

Eating distress and disorders most often develop during adolescence, but can occur at any age. Girls and women are most commonly affected, but around one in five are boys and men.

More research is needed to better understand the experiences of some groups in relation to eating distress and eating disorders, including people on lower incomes, people from minoritised ethnic communities, LGBTQ+ people, disabled and neurodivergent people, women experiencing perimenopause and menopause, older adults, and migrants. 

Eating disorders develop for many reasons and are often influenced by a combination of genetic, psychological, social, and environmental factors. Eating distress and eating disorders may emerge during periods of change and transition, challenging circumstances, or after trauma. Diet culture, appearance pressures, discrimination, and inequalities can all contribute. Not having enough food, or binging and/or purging food, may in turn affect brain chemistry, and produce or reinforce disordered thoughts and behaviour. Growing evidence suggests links between neurodivergence and eating disorders. 

REDCAN member agencies usually do not diagnose eating disorders when they provide support, except in very specific circumstances for particular conditions. We support people who have a relationship with food and eating that they find distressing. We aim for people to recover before they have become very unwell to meet the high threshold for NHS treatment.

You can find out more here about diagnosed eating disorders in this useful guide from our Beat colleagues.