Feeding the Crave: How People with Eating Disorders Get Trapped in the Perpetual Cycle of Digital Food Content

Abstract: Recent studies have examined how digital food content impacts viewers' dietary health. A few have found that individuals with eating disorders are particularly sensitive to digital food content, such as eating and cooking videos, which contribute to disordered eating behaviors. However, there is a lack of comprehensive studies that investigate how these individuals interact with various digital food content. To fill this gap, we conducted two rounds of studies (N=23 and 22, respectively) with individuals with eating disorders to understand their motivations and practices of consuming digital food content. Our study reveals that participants anticipate positive effects from food media to overcome their condition, but in practice, it often exacerbates their disorder. We also discovered that many participants experienced a cycle of quitting and returning to digital food content consumption. Based on these findings, we articulate design implications for digital food content and multimedia platforms to support vulnerable individuals.