What if eating seconds is your powerful Trump protest?
This presidential administration policies places all of us in harms way yet we can resist
All aboard the Trump eating disorder pipeline. Recent executive orders, bills, and administration remarks place more people at risk, including you.
Picture someone with an eating disorder and you probably imagine a skinny white teenager in an affluent neighborhood. As an eating disorder treatment provider for the last 25 years, I used to assume this too until I realized that stereotype only fits for the person able to access eating disorder treatment.
Eating disorders impact people of every age, gender, race, ethnicity, and income level. They are not rare. According to the National Alliance for Eating Disorders, 29 million Americans will experience this condition in their lifetime. They also happen to have one of the highest mortality rates of all mental illnesses. Eating disorder pathology intersects genetics with lived experiences like trauma. It can be tough to predict who experiences an eating disorder yet there is always one common denominator: not eating enough food.
Robert F. Kennedy supports more natural food choices and he promises to decrease chronic disease as the Health and Human Services Secretary. This along with the Trump Administration call for ending federal funding to public health programs and healthcare, I fear skyrocketing eating disorder rates.
Even though you think you don’t fit the eating disorder mold, you can be at increased risk. We can mitigate this by focusing on the threats from increased exposure to trauma, financial funding chaos, and preventable food scarcity.
Threat #1: Getting rid of ultra-processed foods and defunding federal food programs
Kennedy blames pollutants, food dyes, and additives for chronic disease. He wants to swiftly eliminate ultra-processed foods, encourage more natural food sources, and ban pesticides.
Does RFK picture every American going to their neighborhood food market with direct access to farmers every morning? Before their minimum wage job and after they drop their kids off at the daycare that costs more than their too expensive rent? On busy streets without a safe place to walk?
With the average American one paycheck away from losing access to shelter, Kennedy’s recommendations are more than just out of touch. Those very foods demonized as bad–ultra-processed and shelf-stable from preservatives–allow Americans enough to eat. To make matters worse, federal food programs are at risk in order to save federal dollars. Eliminating programs like free school lunch and Meals On Wheels will push even more Americans into food insecurity.
Why does this impact eating disorders? Not eating enough alerts the brain to fixate on food, a term called food preoccupation a precursor to eating disorder pathology. If you complain of food noise, you probably have gone through a significant time of your life without enough food—whether from self-prescribed diet or food insecurity.
As evolved creatures, we humans have been hardwired to seek food to stay alive. When we get access to enough food consistently and have permission to eat a variety of foods, the brain will only think about food when needing to make food decisions. Instead of all the time, a consistently fed brain with permission to eat enough will only think of food when:
Hungry
Connecting with others via food
Making a grocery list
Preparing food
On the flip side, when enough food is not around consistently, the brain fixates on finding another food choice. It will make noise. When food is finally available, it is eaten rapidly and past fullness. This makes sense because the brain wants to prevent the threat of starvation. This is where eating disorder pathology can step in.
Depending on temperament, genetics, and other factors a food preoccupied person will often feel shame for eating rapidly or large amounts–especially if that food is “bad” or they are told to eat less. Those negative emotions set the stage then for restricting, binge eating, purging, overexercising and a host of other disordered eating behaviors.
Even if food preoccupation doesn’t lead to negative emotions or disordered eating, it still distracts us. A brain not getting consistent calories experiences brain fog and inattentiveness. A dieting brain will have a tough time staying engaged in politics and speaking up for injustices–all very convenient when an administration is trying to strip rights away.
Threat #2: Discrediting science and defunding research institutions
The Trump Administration paused funding NIH, CDC, and other research institutions overnight. Kennedy tells us vaccines cause illness, disease, and death even though decades of research prove otherwise. Scientific studies have undergone rigorous trial and error to help us understand health and disease yet in 2025 we are told to just trust those in charge instead of science. Because those puffing their chest to show power told us to believe differently, we are supposed to just get in line to obey.
While they are causing chaos and destroying public health institutions, those at risk for chronic diseases will suffer the most. Gimmicks and fad diets already provoke people toward disordered eating and without sound trusted scientific authority, scams will only worsen. “We know better” and “trust the man in charge” rhetoric often echoed throughout the Trump administration open up the opportunity for more people to distrust themselves and fall for another Diet Trap.
Not everyone who diets will experience an eating disorder, but everyone with an eating disorder will diet. Keeping the public from reliable sources of scientific information will only allow more people to succumb to the seductive side of unscientific information and fad diets. This will cause more eating disorders.
Threat #3: Blocking healthcare access
The 2016 Trump administration said we were overreacting with their three confirmed Supreme Court justices–all obviously opposing abortion–because Roe was precedent and going nowhere. Nine years later, we know they lied and how “state rights” determining access to reproductive medicine led to fatal outcomes.
As an eating disorder clinician, I know when body autonomy ruptures, eating disorder risk increases and its severity worsens. Eating disorder prevention relies on body autonomy and access to healthcare, including reproductive medicine.
Trans, intersex, and other gender diverse individuals experience a higher incidence of eating disorders compared to cisgender peers. Thankfully, gender-affirming treatment–from correct pronouns to safe healthcare access–alleviates some of this risk. In 2025, gender diverse people are having to fight for their lives to go to the public bathroom with dignity, engage in physical activity, and have a positive body image. When someone is not safe–physically or emotionally–they are more susceptible to an eating disorder.
Besides reproductive medicine and gender affirming care, the Trump Administration is threatening again to remove the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid. The House of Representatives recently passed a bill sent to the Senate pushing millions of people off Medicaid. The Trump Administration says this bill just eliminates waste, fraud and abuse yet this will eliminate how over 8 million people receive healthcare including for their eating disorder. As an eating disorder provider, I know this change in healthcare access will delay vital treatment which increases fatalities. Already facing eating disorder behavior stigma, sufferers have another reason to avoid speaking with a healthcare professional because of cost.
It takes a year on average for a person to receive an eating disorder diagnosis, delaying treatment and placing them in harm's way. Blocking access to gender affirming care, reproductive medicine and affordable health insurance will only worsen this delay with fatal outcomes.
Threat #4: Mass deportations
Remember, it’s not just white people with eating disorders. People of any ethnicity and race experience eating disorders. With the current administration, immigrants live in fear and are in danger of deportation. Now we see videos of empty grocery stores often frequented by immigrants. Expect more food insecurity while people live in fear of deportation. Once deported they will experience more uncertainty, starvation, and trauma. As an eating disorder treatment provider, I know these lived experiences enhance eating disorder risk. The Trump administration will be to blame for the increase in worldwide eating disorder occurrence.
We can resist by staying fed
I predict eating disorder risk will skyrocket unless we join together to fight back. Effective eating disorder treatment is already scarce and I am concerned access to recovery will become even harder to come by. We can help prevent eating disorders in a few simple tasks. They begin with your fork.
Reject the diet industry
The diet industry has successfully convinced us they hold the key to health and seduce us with their promises. One hundred years of weight science research demonstrates the futility of diets long term. While your next diet overpromises and under delivers, it distracts you from power being taken from you. A dieting brain can’t focus and only complies with orders. When we are not eating enough we are easier to control.
Consider this act of resistance: reject the pull to diet. This is tough, yes, especially if you live in a higher weight body. This act of resistance will be tough yet take comfort in the research that not yo-yo dieting promotes lower insulin, inflammation, and blood pressure.
Stop commenting on how people look, even Trump.
Every scroll through social media, brings me to thought leaders rightfully criticizing the Trump administration policies. Unfortunately, the discourse includes body disparaging commentary on Trump’s body size and use of make-up. When you hear yourself make those same comments, consider how this impacts others. Does it hurt Trump’s feelings? No, because he will never see it. Instead it hurts your friends, families, and neighbors experiencing stigma. Body shame keeps people from accessing healthcare and has been shown to cause worsened health. By making jokes about Trump’s appearance you are further hurting oppressed groups and giving more power to the wanna-be dictators. Criticize policies, behavior, and actions not appearance.
Change your food language.
Reject the idea that certain food choices are good or bad. Food is fuel to help us fight back–even ultra-processed food. People experiencing food scarcity rely on shelf-stable food to eat enough. People with disabilities require easy to prepare food to be fed. School cafeteria food and other federal food programs may look unappealing at times yet millions will starve without it. Even if you have enough, encourage school age students to buy school lunches so it is less stigmatizing and normalized. Teach them to never call someone else’s lunch disgusting. Instead of feeling bad for making boxed macaroni and cheese for lunch, be grateful you have enough to eat and donate more frequently to your local food pantry.
Coordinate meal trains. Offer leftovers to someone with less. Host potlucks and stay for the sombremesa–a Spanish tradition of connection after a meal. We need this radical interconnectedness right now more than ever to resist fascism. We won’t be able to do this on an empty stomach and distracted brain.
Stay alert and awake by being fed. Accept a second helping. You’ll need it.
Bon appetit.
I would love to read how you are resisting using your food voice. Let us know in comments.
I’ve definitely been struggling a lot more with my ED lately, especially with the war on UPFs. I am privileged to be able to afford fresh vegetables, fruit, whole grains, etc., so I feel obligated to buy more with the pressure to eliminate UPFs. It’s so hard not to panic when I already have severe anxiety and OCD, along with an eating disorder. I hate RFK and the Trump administration for harming me and other vulnerable people.