NourishED Programs & Events
About NourishED
NourishED Research Foundation (NRFi) is a tax-exempt 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing awareness, prevention, treatment options, and clinical and lived experiences of eating disorders and other social justice issues. Learn about the research that motivated our foundation!
NourishED Research
One third of adults will experience binge eating disorder, yet 95% go undetected, undiagnosed, and untreated. Current treatments have many access barriers and <45% succes rates with >65% recurrence. Stigma, miseducation, and descrimination contribute to these issues socioculturally and in healthcare systems. Learn more here!
NourishED Research Summit
NourishED Mindfulness Skills Course
The NourishED Research Summit provides a three-day virtual conference expeirence for whole-health researchers, clinicians, activists, advocates, policymakers, and YOU! Presentations address neurobiology, mental health, trauma and adversity, public health policy, and treatment innovation for eating disorders -- for everyone. Join us!
NourishED Mindfulness Skills Course
Mental Health Resources (Blog, YouTube, Summit)
NourishED Mindfulness Skills Course
The NourishED Mindfulness Skills Course is a 12-session course on mindfulness available in two online formats: (1) live/group sessions and (2) asynchronous (self-paced). Fantastic for: (1) providers who want to learn more about mindfulness-based interventions and (2) folks who want non-clinical support for mental health. All courses are donation-based. Learn More & Join Us!
Mental Health Screening Tools
Mental Health Resources (Blog, YouTube, Summit)
Mental Health Resources (Blog, YouTube, Summit)
Binge Eating Disorder (BED) has 20-30% prevlaence yet goes 95% undetected and undiagnosed, and has 90% comorbidity with mental health issues (adversity, trauma, substane abuse, anxiety, depression, PTSD, suicidality). Binge eating is often used to cope or mask utnreated symptoms. Free screening tools & mental health resources here.
Mental Health Resources (Blog, YouTube, Summit)
Mental Health Resources (Blog, YouTube, Summit)
Mental Health Resources (Blog, YouTube, Summit)
At NourishED, we offer free and low-cost resources to empower patients, providers, and everyday folks to access and support inner healing potential through a variety of modalities. Our screening tools, blog, YouTube Channel, social media accounts, Mindfulness Skills Courses, & mental health resources help put your health into your nourishing hands.
NourishED Research Projects
NourishED Research Inernship Program
NourishED Research Projects
All NourishED Research Projects share a common goal: to improve the collective awareness, understanding, clear-seeing (Prajna), healing, and lived experiences of clinincal and nonclincal adults with binge eating disorder and other issues related to health disparity and self-efficacy.
Publications & Impact
NourishED Research Inernship Program
NourishED Research Projects
Thanks to the support of our community, we have been able to make a significant impact over the years. This occurs at many levels, including our high-impact-factor publications, which help to shape ongoing research and clinical care. Learn more about NourishED publications
NourishED Research Inernship Program
NourishED Research Inernship Program
Participate in NourishED Research (Participant Page)
Our internship program equips aspiring researchers with the knowledge, training, mentorship, and experience needed to drive innovation in conscious, whole-health research. Competencies include cientific inquiry and literacy as well as preclinical-, clinical-, and contemplative approaches to research and care.
Participate in NourishED Research (Participant Page)
Participate in NourishED Research (Participant Page)
Participate in NourishED Research (Participant Page)
We prioritize research that includes the 95% of adults with binge eating disorder who never receive a formal diagnosis or self-recognition, the 60-90% who never pursue or receive standard treatment, and all race, ethnic, religious, sex, gender, & socio-economic status' (Bray et al., 2022, 2025).
Support NourishED Research (Donate)
Participate in NourishED Research (Participant Page)
Support NourishED Research (Donate)
Your donations help us continue our mission and support our community. Every dollar counts and will make a difference in the lives of those we serve. Donations support our Research Internship Program, Publication Fees, the NourishED Research Summit, Overhead costs, and More!.
NRFi Research: Binge Eating Disorder
What is Binge Eating Disorder?
🔎 Binge eating disorder (BED) is a mental health diagnosis, recognized in the APA's Diagnostic Manual (DSM-5/TR)(1).
🩺 Binge eating disorder is characterized by:
- ✔️ Rapidly eating objectively large amounts of food
- ("More than others would in similar situations").
- ("Past the point of being uncomfortably full").
- ✔️ Associated with loss of control and distress.
- ✔️ Accompanied by feeling of guilt or shame.
- ✔️ Without compensation (e.g., purging).
- ✔️ Occurs in ~2-hr windows, weekly, for ≥ 3 months.
📈 22% of adults will experience BED in their lifetime (2).
❤️🩹 90% of folks with BED experience trauma, substance use, anxiety, depression, obesity, diabetes, and/or heart disease that significantly impair quality of life and often prompt binge eating as ways to mask or cope (3,4,5,6,7,8).
Binge Eating Disorder Treatment
- Standard Guideline treatments for BED include (9):
- 🧠 Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).
- 💊 Pharmacotherapy (antidepressants, Vyvanse).
- 🥗 Behavioral weight loss.
- Standard treatments have (6-9):
- 🔎 Low treatment rates (38.3%–43.6%).
- 🔎 High recurrence rates (49%–64%).
- 🔎 High rates of treatment dissatisfaction.
- 🔎 High rates of early discontinuation of care.
- Interventions with increasing use & support (6-8,10):
- Dialectic Behavioral Therapy (DBT).
- 🧘♀️ Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs).
- 🤝 Community-Based Approaches (Twelve Step).
- 📚 Guided Self-Help Appraoches (G-SH).
- 📱 Virtual Platforms (Noom, Brightline).
- 💉 GLP-1 Inhibitors (Ozempic, Wygovi).
- Studies find that 55 - 95% of folks with BED (3-8):
- ❌ 95% Don't know they have an eating disorder.
- ❌ 95% Never receive a formal diagnosis.
- ❌ 95% Don't recognize the need for treatment.
- ❌ 56% - 87% Never access standard treatment.
- ❌ 85% Lack access to healthcare.
The "SWAG" Stereotype in BED
🚨 The "SWAG" stereotype ascribes all eating disorders to
Skinny, White, Affluent, Girls with food restaint (3-4,7-8). 🚨
The SWAG demographic:
- 🔎 Saturates treatment-seeking populations.
- 🔎 Saturates research samples that:
- 🤔 Recruit from treatment centers.
- 🤔 Inform our understanding of binge eating disorder and possible treatment solutions.
- 🔎 Represents <5% of folks with binge eating.
🚨 This dangerous stereotype resuls in misunderstanding about what binge eating disorder is and contributes to under-screening and low treatment success rates (3-4,7-8). 🚨
Put the SWAG Stereotype to BED
🤔 Did you know ... that (3-4, 7-8):
- 🏳️🌈 BIPOC & LGBTQ2+ have 2- & 3x higher BED risk & prevalence rates than their WCHA* peers.
- 🛒 ~52% of food pantry users meet diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder, usually binge eating disorder.
- ⚖️ Food inscurity and government assistance increase risk for binge eating disorder 2- and 3-fold.
- ❤️🩹 Adverse childhood and lifetime experiences and trauma (abuse, neglect, invalidating environments, PTSD) are highly prevalent in BED and increase risk.
🔎 These findings suggest a different pathology than that associated with the "SWAG" stereotype. 🔎
Abbreviations: BED: Binge Eating Disorder; BIPOC: Black, Indigenous, and People of Color; LGBTQ2+: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, & 2-Hearted. *WCHA: White, cis-gendered, heterosexual, affluent.*
SWAG Stigma in Healthcare
🚨 The SWAG stereotype & other forms of stigma have serious repercussions for binge eating disorder diagnosis and treatment.
🏳️🌈 BIPOC and LGBTQ2+ Folks (3-4,7-8):
• ❌ Have 2- & 3x higher BED risk & prevalence rates.
• ❌ Are 50% less likely to be screened for an eating disorder.
• ❌ Are 50% less likely to receive a diagnosis or care.
• ❌ Are represented in <10% of research samples.
Binge Eating Disorder is a Social Justice Issue
🌱 At NourishED, we view research as just the first step. 🌱
🤝 We place equal value on translating research findings into clinical practice. 🤝
🎥 Check out this 30-min keynote presentation our Director, Brenna Bray, PhD gave at a recent International Conference on Alternative Medicine and Integrative Healthcare (AMIH2025).
NourishED Mission: Your Health in Your Hands
- The NourishED Research Foundation (NRFi) is dedicated to catalyzing breakthroughs in:
- Understanding
- Awareness
- Prevention
- Access to healing, and
- Clinical and lived experiences
- for eating disorders and other issues of:
- Health self-efficacy,
- Health equity, and
- Health disparity.
At NourishED, we aim to put your health in YOUR hands.
NRFi Research Priorities I
- We prioritize communit-based research that can identify and test new treatment options that are:
- Free or low cost.
- Remote or community-based.
- Socioculturally/demographically sensitive and inclusive
- Nonstgmatizing.
- Trauma-Infirmed.
- Empirically and biomedically sound.
- Easily accessible to those in need.
NRFi Research Priorities II
- Our research prioritizes the 50-95% of adults with eating disorders who:
- Never receive a formal diagnosis (95%).
- Lack self-recognition (95%).
- Are not represented in research (90%).
- Lack access to healthcare (85%).
- Lack access to standard treatment (85%).
- Fail to respond to conventional treatments (65%).
- Experience trauma, stigmatization, and invalidation, including from healthcare professionals (80-95%).
- (See supporting citatoins in Bray et al., 2022-5).
Hi there!
Welcome to NourishED! We're a 501(c)(3) non-profit research organization that uses uses research to improve awareness, prevention, treatment outcomes, and lived experiences of eating disorders and other mental health disparities. We're so glad you're here!