"How SNAP Benefit Cuts Fuel Eating Disorders—And What We Can Do About It"

Written By Elizabeth Nolan

Whether a person is intentionally restricting their food intake (e.g., to lose weight) or their food intake is being restricted due to external factors (e.g., SNAP benefits being cut) – the body is impacted. Because this article is going to focus on the impact of limited access to food on eating disorders and disordered eating development, it would be a misrepresentation of circumstances to describe a person’s limited access to food as a “restrictive” eating behavior. People who are dependent on SNAP benefits to be able to eat, and are now unable to eat consistently because those benefits were cut, are not choosing to restrict their intake – it’s being forced on them by oppressive government directives. Instead of saying “restricting,” I’m going to use variations of the term “food deprivation.” 

When a person is deprived of food, their body is going to respond to just that information – that they don’t have enough energy. The body doesn’t know whether the deprivation is due to intentionally restricting food intake, lack of access to food, or something else – it just knows that the nutritional tank is low or empty. The specifics of how the body responds to inadequate energy intake varies among individuals, but has significant impacts on the person both psychologically and medically (Gaudiani, 2018).

Food Deprivation and Bingeing

Most people tend to become fixated or obsessed with food when they are nutritionally deprived; and if you think about it from an evolution/survival perspective, this is actually very adaptive. The body is responding to food deprivation with a drive for food and a desire to protect the body weight (Gaudiani, 2018). What ends up happening though is that oftentimes, the person who is food deprived ends up bingeing when they next eat because of how hungry they are. For many individuals, this can turn into a vicious cycle of food deprivation and bingeing, often maintained by the emotions that follow the bingeing (guilt, shame, powerlessness) and restricting (empowerment, accomplishment, discipline). People who are stuck in this binge-restrict cycle often become so familiar with it that they are no longer relying on their hunger and fullness cues – they are just restricting for as long as they can (or as long as they have to because they don’t have access to food), and then bingeing as soon as they have access to food, because their body is desperate for nutrition and energy. 
Through my work with individuals who are stuck in this cycle, I’ve found that they typically find it challenging to return to eating more regularly and listening to their hunger and fullness cues. This is why saying things like “Just eat” is dismissive and ineffective advice. People who are in the deprivation-bingeing cycle often fear that eating when they are hungry and stopping when they’re full isn’t possible anymore. They worry that they can’t trust their body to tell them when to stop eating; and are concerned with feeling out of control. It takes a significant amount of time; energy; and physical, mental, and emotional effort for people to work through this and begin to normalize their relationship with food again.

Food Deprivation and Restricting

When a person is food deprived for long enough, they will develop medical complications. How severe, how soon, and what type will vary from person to person, but it’s a sure thing that the body is going to be negatively impacted by lowered nutritional intake at some point when a person is continuously food deprived.

There’s a plethora of medical complications that result from food deprivation; including but not limited to hormonal changes, changes in orthostatic vital signs, lowered heart rate, lowered bone density, imbalanced electrolytes, and skin and nail changes (Gaudiani, 2018). As a professional in the field for almost a decade, I’ve seen all of these among patients I’ve worked with; but for the purpose of this article, I’m going to hone in on some of the common complications that specifically become a barrier to increasing food intake back to where it should be.

One of the more common medical complications of a prolonged period of food deprivation is a slowed metabolism. Because the body isn’t getting enough energy, it wants to hold onto nutrition as long as it possibly can (Gaudiani, 2019). This often results in gastroparesis, which is a fancy way of saying that the GI system is slowed down so much that the process of digesting and eventually excreting food moves at a snail’s pace. This causes the individual to feel constipated, bloated, nauseous, and gassy; and to feel intense pressure and fullness even when eating very small amounts of food.

When the metabolism is slowed down in this way, it takes time for it to return to the pace it was at prior to food deprivation, and essentially the only way to get rid of the GI pain is to eat through it until the body trusts that food will be eaten consistently and it doesn’t need to hold onto it in the GI tract as a survival mechanism (Gaudiani, 2019). It’s a hard sell to many individuals, to tell them “You have to keep eating even though it’s uncomfortable, and eventually you won’t feel like this every time you eat.” An additional complicating factor is if the person loses weight from food deprivation and is getting positive feedback from others, who are telling them “You look amazing!” and “I wish I had the willpower that you do!”. The physical discomfort of having to eat through the gastroparesis pains (bloating, nausea, gas, constipation) and the positive reinforcement from people about weight loss often leads many individuals to then intentionally restrict food intake so they don’t have to feel the bloating, nausea, gas, and constipation.

Food Deprivation and Psychological Changes

Food deprivation also impacts a person’s mood and emotional state in significant ways. When people are food deprived, the body wants to protect itself, which puts the person in a state of hypervigilance as it scans the world for threats – usually causing the person to become more vigilant, rigid, fearful, and anxious (Gaudiani, 2019). The rigidity makes it challenging for the individual to change their behaviors (e.g., start eating more) as does the anxiety and fear of negative consequences of eating more (e.g., GI discomfort, negative feedback from others about weight gain). For anyone who has experienced hypervigilance (due to food deprivation, trauma, or something else) it’s an exhausting headspace to be in. It makes it challenging to focus; hard to remember things; difficult to sleep (the body wants to stay alert in case of a threat), and more.

An ethically controversial study published by Ancel Keys and his colleagues in 1950 called the Minnesota Starvation Study looked at the physiological and psychological impacts that food deprivation had on the group of men who participated in the study. The results showed that food deprivation had the following impacts:

  • Increased preoccupation with food (e.g., talking, reading, dreaming, daydreaming about it; reading cookbooks and collecting recipes; changing occupations to food-related careers)

  • Increased signs of depression (e.g., easily irritated; lowered or diminished interest in previously favorable activities)

  • Increased sensitivity and argumentativeness

  • Development of anxiety that was not present prior to food deprivation (Keys, Brozek, Henshel, Mickelson, & Taylor, 1950)

  • Decreased concentration, slowed learning, and poor judgement (Eckert, Gottesman, Swigart, & Caster, 2018)

In a follow-up study done 57 years later, researchers interviewed some of the participants from the 1950 study and noted that “Many participants reported maintaining a higher than normal weight and had abnormal eating habits for many months and even years before returning to "normal" state” (Eckert, Gottesman, Swigart, & Caster, 2018). This is crucial as we consider the impact of food deprivation on individuals and communities who have lost access to SNAP benefits – the impacts of food deprivation don’t just go away once access to food is restored.

SNAP Benefit Cuts as Part of a Larger Systemic Issue

Overall, it’s clear that limited access to food and subsequent food deprivation has negative impacts on a person’s physical and emotional wellbeing. Furthermore, the specific impacts it has on people (e.g., rigidity; poor judgement; increased sensitivity and argumentativeness; discomfort when eating due to slowed metabolism; disconnection from bodily sensations that make it hard to trust hunger/fullness cues) make it really challenging for people to then return to the relationship with food that they had prior to food deprivation.

Aside from the person’s relationship with food – think about how the impacts of food deprivation can impact people in other areas of their life:

  • Going to work can be really challenging for someone experiencing depressive symptoms.

  • Keeping up with appointments and bills is harder when you can’t concentrate as well.

  • Poor judgement, increased sensitivity, and increased argumentativeness is going to make it challenging to maintain connective relationships with others.

  • Increased anxiety can be debilitating and impact concentration, relationships, work, and more.

Food accessibility doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and in order to truly understand the impact of SNAP benefits being cut, we must consider other variables that compound the negative impacts of food deprivation. Eligibility for SNAP benefits is dependent upon many factors, a major factor being income. This means that any and all stressors related to having a low income are now being compounded by the physical and psychological impacts of food deprivation… and additionally, every single marginalized identity that a person holds on top of that (e.g., race, ethnicity, ability status, sexual orientation, gender identity, documentation status, etc) continues to further compound the impact of stress and increases overall risk for negative health outcomes (Frost & Meyer, 2023).

Here’s What You Can Do

There are a lot of ways that you can make a difference in mitigating the impact that food deprivation can have on individuals and communities who rely on SNAP benefits for consistent access to meals. Here is a list of things that you can do, on the individual and systemic levels, to combat the food deprivation that is a direct result of SNAP benefits being cut:

  • Keep snacks, water, gatorade, etc in your backpack/purse/bag in case you encounter someone who is in need of food/drink when you’re out and about

  • Share this article with people to spread awareness of how food deprivation can impact people

  • Sign up to volunteer with Philly Food Rescue, picking up food donations and dropping them off at their intended recipient

  • Donate money to food banks directly – they are often able to buy food items in bulk, meaning the money you donate will cover the cost of more food than you individual food donation does

  • Volunteer for your local food bank

  • Vote in local elections for people who are prioritizing fighting food insecurity and bringing back SNAP benefits

Here’s a list of specific organizations/directories you can look into:

References

Eckert, E., Gottesman, I., Swigart, S., & Casper, R. (2018). A 57-Year Follow-up Investigation and Review of the Minnesota Study on Human Starvation and its Relevance to Eating Disorders. Archives Of Psychology, 2(3). Retrieved from https://www.archivesofpsychology.org/index.php/aop/article/view/50

Frost, D. M., & Meyer, I. H. (2023). Minority stress theory: Application, critique, and continued relevance. Current opinion in psychology, 51, 101579. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2023.101579

Gaudiani, J. L. (2018). Sick enough: A Guide to the Medical Complications of Eating Disorders. Routledge.

Keys, A., Brozek, J., Henshel, A., Mickelson, O., & Taylor, H.L. (1950). The biology of human starvation, (Vols. 1–2). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

Disclaimer: This blog is for informational purposes and is intended to both educate the reader and destigmatize mental health. In no way is this is a substitute for therapy from a licensed clinician, nor should it be used in a coercive manner.
Elizabeth Nolan
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