About 40% of US high school students report binge eating in CDC survey
About 40% of US high school students said they had experienced binge eating in the previous month, according to the CDC’s 2025 Youth Risk Behavior Survey of nearly 7,000 students. Seventeen per cent reported an episode within the previous three days. The survey defined binge eating as consuming an unusually large amount of food in a short period while feeling unable to stop or control the amount eaten.
Recent binge eating was reported by 19% of female students and 16% of male students. Rates were also higher among Hispanic and multiracial students, both at 20%, and Black students at 19%, compared with 15% of white students and 10% of Middle Eastern or North African students. Researchers said the findings challenge the stereotype that disordered eating mainly affects white girls and young women.
This was the first time the biennial CDC survey had asked about binge eating and its first collection of disordered-eating data since such questions were removed in 2015 to make room for emerging risks including youth vaping. Binge eating was associated with hourly social-media use, poor mental health and suicidality, though the survey does not establish causation. Researchers also pointed to food insecurity, economic strain and the widespread availability of heavily marketed ultra-processed foods as possible areas for further study, while stressing that disordered eating is fundamentally a mental-health issue requiring greater research and funding.
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