Tips and resources for Eating Difficulties

There are lots of things you can do to make healthier eating choices. Try these helpful habits:

Base your meals on higher fibre starchy carbohydrates – choose wholegrain varieties to help you feel full for longer.
Eat more fruit and vegetables – at least 5 portions every day. They can be fresh, frozen, canned, dried or juiced.
Eat more fish, including a portion of oily fish.
Cut down on saturated fat and sugar – you need some of these in your diet, but have these in moderation.
Eat less salt: no more than 6g a day for adults.
Get active to maintain a healthy weight.
Stay well hydrated – it’s recommended that you drink 6 to 8 glasses of fluid (preferably water) every day. This is in addition to the fluid you get from the food you eat.
Always eat breakfast – skipping breakfast will not help you lose weight and it deprives you of some of the nutrients you need for good health.

For more tips on eating well, visit: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/

There are also lots of other things that can help you manage eating problems. We recommend that you have a look at the following self-help tools:

Website and online resources

NHS Inform provides a good source of evidence-based information about eating disorders. The website is: https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/mental-health/eating-disorders

Beat is a charity for people with eating disorders. It has a range of information on the help and support available for people with eating disorders, and their friends and families. They are accessible via this website: https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/

The Scottish Eating Disorders Interest Group (SEDIG) provides a range of information for people with eating disorders, their carers and loved ones, and healthcare professionals. They also link to local sources of support. They are accessible via this website: https://www.sedig.org/

Blogs

For the latest blogs covering real-life experiences of living with an eating disorder, including recovery, visit:

Beat

Eating Disorder Hope

National Eating Disorders Assoc (NEDA) Blog

Self-help guides

NHS self-help guide for managing eating disorders (1.4Mb PDF)
(Also available via: https://web.ntw.nhs.uk/selfhelp/leaflets/Eating%20Disorders.pdf)

A self-help guide towards recovery from binge-eating disorder (520kb PDF)
(Available via: https://bodywhys.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/BEDBookletUpload.pdf)

An Australian website which provides a series of self-help booklets you can work through. The booklets are organised into modules that you can work through one-by-one. The modules provide information about disordered eating, how it develops, how it is maintained and strategies to help you start to recover from disordered eating. Available via: https://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/Resources/Looking-After-Yourself/Disordered-Eating