The UK is affluent, educated, and home to as many as 1.6 million people who struggle to eat food each day (1). Not because they cannot afford it or don’t have the time, but because they cannot bring themselves to.

Indeed, the UK has the highest rate of eating disorders in Europe and sadly the numbers are on the rise.

What you may not be aware of, however, is that some of these sufferers are praying, believing, churchgoing Christians.

According to Christian organisation Anorexia Bulimia Care (ABC), a church congregation of 200 will typically have around four or five people suffering with an eating disorder at any one time.

“Research we’ve carried out at events and conferences found that 90% of church members knew someone who was suffering from an eating disorder. Seventy per cent of them knew someone in their own church,” says Jane Smith, executive director of ABC.

“Of those that we spoke to who did know of someone suffering in their church, over half of them said that their church leaders did not know what was going on.”

Given the church’s emphasis on people being made in the image of God and its well-known commitment to feeding the hungry at home and abroad, the deliberate rejection of food by a Christian can be hard to understand.

So why do they do it? Are they just being selfish or silly? Or is there more to it than meets the eye?

Premier Christian radio host Maria Rodrigues-Toth has taken many calls from listeners who have suffered from eating disorders. The details of each caller may be different but what they share in common is low self-esteem.

“A lot of the time it’s a sense that they are not pretty enough, not interesting enough, they’re not worth what God has made them to be,” she says.

Arianna Walker is executive director of Mercy Ministries, a charity that provides a six-month residential programme for young women suffering from life controlling issues.

She isn’t surprised that there are girls in the church struggling with self-image and eating disorders. Every woman who comes to Mercy Ministries comes through a church and is from a Christian background.

“Being a Christian does not make you immune to the challenges of this world,” she says.

“Churches across the country are reaching out to the communities which is great and these people are getting saved and becoming Christians,” she explains.

“But then six months down the line it is revealed that individuals were abused, self-harming or addicted to drugs.

“Now they’re in church and trying to discover what their faith in God looks like with all the baggage from the past.”

With size zero models dominating the fashion industry and women’s magazines with page after page of airbrushed beauties, it’s not surprising that girls feel under pressure to "look like them".

"If we have a culture where there are a lot of unrealistic images portrayed, this does place a pressure on the more vulnerable, especially teenage (or younger) girls, to believe that they ‘should’ be able to achieve this," says psychologist Dr Kate Middleton.

This is just a part of the problem, however, and the deliberate rejection of food goes beyond a desire to resemble slim models and celebrities.

"I can honestly say that I have only ever had one or two eating disorders that have been started by a diet to look thinner,” says Jane.

“I would say that 99% of all our calls are to do with emotional triggers, emotional trauma for the child.

"More commonly, we find family rows, breakdowns, bereavement and bullying are the major factors."

Eating disorders develop as a way to try to cope with traumatic events or bullying, says Dr Middleton.

"They may appear totally destructive from the outside but they stem from an attempt to make things better and a belief that losing weight, or gaining control over weight would help.

"They are about people trying to feel better and do better. Every sufferer will have a different story, and understanding what led to the development of the eating disorder in the first place is often a vital part of recovery."

The psychological fallout of an eating disorder is that it is difficult for sufferers to talk about. According to Jane, anorexics and bulimics can go for years without seeking help, convincing themselves that they don’t have a problem.

“We have people ringing us who have plucked up the courage because they feel they can’t go on anymore and they tell us they haven’t spoken to anyone.

“They tell us we are the first people they’ve spoken to in ten or fifteen years. It’s very distressing.”

ABC works very closely with youth leaders in churches to support today’s youth.

"Youth leaders are pivotal. Church youth groups are often open to the general public. The young people of the town will come in and that’s the place where young people can be heard."

She feels very passionate about equipping the church to understand eating disorders.

"I think also the church has to know what to do when somebody has an eating disorder and the parents come to the church leader and say ‘I need your help’."

Resources are available for parents to help them cope with their child’s condition. ABC has put together ‘The Parents’ Guide to Eating Disorders’ based on the questions they have been asked by parents over the years.

However, recovery is a long journey. The NHS puts it at five years, setbacks notwithstanding.

What is most important is getting to the heart of the issue and not simply treating the symptom, says Arianna.

"Eating disorders are like branches. You can meet someone and very quickly see that they are anorexic. It is evident in their behaviour and body.

"Most people’s approach to this is to chop off the branch - ‘let’s deal with the eating disorder’. Whilst that may be effective for a short time, it’s like a tree.

“If you were to cut off the branch it would go, but if you don’t deal with what’s causing that branch to grow in the first place i.e. the roots, then the branch is just going to grow back in the same place or somewhere different."

For those who persevere, recovery does come in the end.

Maria recalls a story from one of her listeners.

“I remember her telling the story of how she was so thin that literally it was just skin hugging her skeleton. Doctors told her that her life was essentially going to end.

“It wasn’t a scare tactic; it was just the reality that she was at the end of her life. She hardly weighed anything.”

For this particular caller, it all began when she started receiving taunts at school and was being bullied. She wanted to fit in so took to eating less and it eventually spiralled out of control.

Thankfully, she is one of the sufferers who recovered with God’s help and thus changed the course of her life.

“I remember how she shared with me that she was literally lying on her deathbed and she felt like there was nothing she could do,” says Maria.

“It was at that point that she ended up crying out to God and she just felt filled with light and after that moment she began to get stronger.

“It was God that enabled her to begin to start the process of rebuilding her life. Now she ministers to other women who are also dealing with this issue.”

Notes:
(1) Estimate of eating disorder charity Beat, based on NHS statistics