Eating Disorders Awareness Week

Canada’s Eating Disorders Awareness Week is February 1-7, 2026, a week dedicated to bringing important information to light about the reality of eating disorders and the impact they have on people of all ages, genders, ethnicities and body types. The theme of this week is “Health Doesn’t Have a Look” which aims at challenging harmful ways that thinness has been equated with health in modern culture. This messaging that a thin body is the ideal has contributed to significant mental, physical and emotional health issues for those who have been taught to strive after that standard. Diet culture and even what seems like a benign focus on healthy eating can lead to an unhealthy preoccupation with making the right food choices, limiting certain foods or exercising to compensate for consuming something. Eating disorders are estimated to affect over 2.9 million Canadians, and many more who don’t fall into the clinical threshold of an eating disorder diagnosis struggle with thoughts and behaviours related to food, their body and exercise that impact their functioning on some level.

If you yourself have, or currently do, struggle with disordered eating or one of the eight formally diagnosed eating disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders (DSM-V), Eating Disorders Awareness Week is an opportunity to participate in your own recovery, as well as increasing visibility and improving education for others. It could be a chance to get informed about thoughts, behaviour patterns and emotions that have impacted your relationship with food and your body for years, and is an opportunity to reach out for support. It could be a chance to look horizontally and recognize how many others beside you have struggled with similar issues. It might also be a chance to find your voice as you practice advocacy, sharing on social media or finding ways to participate in the campaign in ways that feel natural to you.

If you yourself don’t resonate with disordered eating experiences, this could be an opportunity to lean in and be curious about how this issue might intersect with your life and role. Parents might wonder how to cultivate healthy body image and a positive relationship with food in their kids; professionals such as teachers, coaches, mental health professionals and medical personnel might find education helpful in understanding the depth of the influence of wider culture on peoples’ relationship with their bodies and food, and find ways to support people they work with to flourish in this area of their life.

For more information, check out:

The National Eating Disorders Information Clinic at https://nedic.ca/

National Institute for Eating Disorders https://www.nied.ca/eating-disorders-in-canada

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash