CDC: 40% of High School Students Report Binge Eating in Past Month

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on October 15 that 40.5% of U.S. high school students said they binge ate at least once in the past 30 days. The findings come from the 2025 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), published in a supplement to the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. This marks the first time the YRBS has included questions about binge eating, establishing a new baseline for the behavior among adolescents.

Survey Definitions and Demographics

The survey defined binge eating as consuming an unusually large amount of food in a short period while feeling a loss of control or an inability to stop eating. Among the 6,898 students included in the analysis, 17.2% reported binge eating on three or more days in the past month. Approximately 2% reported binge eating on all 30 days.

Rates varied by demographic group:

• Gender: Girls reported frequent binge eating (three or more days) at a rate of 18.6%, compared to 15.9% for boys.
• Race and Ethnicity: Hispanic students reported the highest rate at 20.5%, followed by multiracial students (19.6%), Black students (18.7%), Asian students (17.7%), and White students (14.6%). Middle Eastern or North African students reported a rate of 9.9%.
• Grade Level: Rates did not differ significantly by grade, ranging from 16.7% among ninth graders to 17.6% among seniors.

Ariel Beccia, a researcher at Boston Children's Hospital and co-author of the report, told STAT, "It was extremely alarming seeing how high those numbers were." Beccia noted that the higher prevalence among students of color challenges long-held stereotypes that eating disorders primarily affect white girls and young women.

Links to Mental Health and Social Media

The report identified strong associations between frequent binge eating and mental health struggles. Students who binge ate on three or more days were more likely to report poor mental health, persistent sadness or hopelessness, and serious thoughts of suicide.

• Mental Health: 27.2% of students with poor mental health reported frequent binge eating, compared to 14.0% of those without.
• Suicide Risk: 27.1% of students who had seriously considered suicide reported frequent binge eating, compared to 15.3% of those who had not.
• Social Media: Students who used social media at least hourly were about 1.7 times as likely to report frequent binge eating compared to those who used it once a day or less. 22.8% of hourly users reported frequent binge eating, versus 12.9% of less frequent users.

The survey is cross-sectional, meaning it shows associations rather than causation. The authors noted that unmeasured factors, such as socioeconomic status, may influence the results. Additionally, the social media question measured frequency of use but not the content viewed.

Advocacy and Limitations

The inclusion of binge eating questions in the YRBS follows a decade-long advocacy campaign. S. Bryn Austin, a professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and director of the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders (STRIPED), called the data "a big milestone victory for eating disorders research and advocacy." Eating disorder questions had been dropped from the survey in 2015 to make room for topics like vaping.

The survey has limitations. The overall response rate was 30.6%, the lowest in the survey's history. The data covers only students enrolled in school and relies on self-reported answers. Furthermore, a single question may classify some ordinary overeating as binge eating, potentially overstating prevalence.

Why it matters

This data provides the first national baseline for binge eating among U.S. high school students, a behavior previously under-studied due to a lack of epidemiological data. Beccia stated that eating disorders remain "underfunded and under-studied," and hopes these findings will encourage funders to treat disordered eating as "a true public health issue." The next YRBS is scheduled for 2027, which will allow researchers to determine if rates are rising or falling.

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Sources

• medicaldaily.com: About 40% of High School Students Reported Binge Eating in the Past Month in First CDC Survey Data
• hsph.harvard.edu: Binge eating common among U.S. high schoolers, study finds | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.