In this article, we will take a look at 15 states with the highest rates of eating disorders. If you want to skip our discussion of eating disorders, their causes, and their effects on American society, you can go directly to the 5 States With Highest Rates of Eating Disorders.
Eating disorders are a group of illnesses that affect a person's relationship with food and body image. They are primarily mental illnesses that have been recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) since the 1980s. The current edition of DSM recognizes eight categories of eating disorders. If you were wondering which mental illness has the highest mortality rate, it is Anorexia Nervosa. The disease causes a strong fear of gaining weight, and its patients resort to extreme exercise and calorie limitations. On the other hand, binge eating, which leads to several other diseases such as obesity and heart attack, also causes significant mortality indirectly.
A significant portion of America has an eating disorder. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, almost 30 million Americans live with an eating disorder. If you live in America, there is a 9% chance that you will develop an eating disorder in your lifetime. However, this illness disproportionately affects women as they are twice as likely to develop an eating disorder compared to men. In fact, eating disorders are the third most common chronic illness in adolescent females.
Insurance data depicts an alarming situation regarding eating disorders. There has been a significant increase as the share of claim lines related to eating disorders among all claims increased by 65% between the years 2018 and 2022. However, it is worth noting that the majority of eating disorder claim lines as a percentage of total claim lines increased in the first year of the pandemic (2019 - 2020), during which it rose by 39%.
The worsening of America's eating disorder crisis during post-pandemic has triggered several state laws aimed at tackling the surge. Lawmakers across the country are proposing restrictions on social media algorithms to prevent them from promoting harmful content. These laws are specifically proposed to counteract anorexia, which according to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, claims 10,000 lives every year. The proposed restrictions also include preventing the sale of weight loss pills to minors. Other proposals include adding eating disorder prevention into the school curriculum.
While anorexia is one of the most common eating disorders and claims the most lives, disorders such as binge eating and emotional eating are also a serious concern. The mortality rate of these disorders gets underreported as most of the time they contribute indirectly to death. Binge eating for several years, for example, can lead to cardiovascular disease, which is also a result of several other factors, such as lack of mobility and exercise.
The popularity and prevalence of fast food may be contributing to the eating disorder crisis in the country. Research has shown a positive correlation between fast-food consumption and eating disorder risk in teenagers. America has a thriving fast-food culture and is home to some of the most popular fast-food chains in the world. McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD) is one of the largest fast-food chains. The restaurant chain has the highest number of franchises in the world. Up until recently, McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD) was also the leading fast-food chain in terms of revenue, a title which now belongs to Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX), another American fast-food company. Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX), the largest fast food company in terms of revenue, earned $32.9 billion during 2022. For comparison, McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD)'s revenue for the same year was $23.18 billion. With America's thriving fast-food culture, both companies have a positive outlook. Here is what RiverPark Advisors, an investment advisory firm and sponsor of the RiverPark family of mutual funds, said about Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) in its Q3 2023 investor letter:
"Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX): SBUX is the premier roaster, marketer and retailer of specialty coffee in the world, operating in 83 markets. Through its more than 36,000 global stores (roughly 50% operated and 50% licensed) the company offers handcrafted coffee, tea and other beverages and a variety of food items. SBUX also sells a variety of packaged coffee and tea products and licenses its trademarks through other channels such as grocery and foodservice through a Global Coffee Alliance with Nestlé. In addition to its flagship Starbucks Coffee brand, the company sells goods and services under the brands Teavana, Seattle’s Best Coffee, Ethos, Starbucks Reserve and Princi.
The rise of eating disorders in the country has paved the way for many treatment centers. In addition, psychiatrists also prescribe certain pharmaceuticals to help deal with life-threatening eating disorders. Most psychiatrists, for example, prescribe Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY)'s Prozac, a brand name for Fluoxetine. The drug is a commonly prescribed antidepressant, which is also beneficial for people with anorexia. Prozac was introduced by Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) in 1986 as a treatment for several psychiatric disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder. However, eventually, Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY)'s Prozac was found to be beneficial for several eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia nervosa.
With that backdrop, let's look at 15 states with the highest rates of eating disorders.
15 States With Highest Rates of Eating Disorders
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Methodology
To curate our list of 15 states with the highest rates of eating disorders, we relied on data from Google Trends. Accurate state-wise data regarding people suffering from eating disorders was not available, so we had to rely on the general search interest in each state. Our rationale for this was that the higher the rates of eating disorders, the more popular its related search terms would be. We looked at Google Trends for search popularity of the five most common eating disorders in each state in 2023. Google Trends has an arbitrary rating out of 100 - the higher the rating, the more popular the search term. For each state, we totaled the rating for the five eating disorders and divided it by 5 to arrive at our own eating disorder score. The higher the score, the higher the rates of eating disorders in the state. The eating disorders we considered for our research were: anorexia, bigorexia, binge eating, body dysmorphia, and emotional eating.
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15 - West Virginia
Insider Monkey Eating Disorder Score - 66.6
The State of West Virginia incurs upwards of $350 million yearly economic loss because of eating disorders. Eating disorders cost West Virginia's health system an estimated $25.4 million each year. Google trends of 2023 indicate that the terms 'binge eating' and 'emotional eating' were more popular than anorexia in the state. Anorexia scored 80 in Google Trends, whereas binge eating and emotional eating each scored 89 and 92 respectively.
14 - North Carolina
Insider Monkey Eating Disorder Score - 67
The most popular search term in North Carolina was binge eating, which scored 80 on Google Trends for the year 2023. Anorexia, bigorexia, body dysmorphia, and emotional eating each scored 69, 24, 80, and 78, respectively, landing it in the 14th spot of our states with the highest rates of eating disorders list. Eating disorders cost North Carolina's economy an estimated $2.1 billion each year.
13 - Arkansas
Insider Monkey Eating Disorder Score - 67.6
Binge eating and Anorexia were both quite popular search terms in Arkansas in 2023, with the former scoring 93, and the latter scoring 87 in Google Trends. Eating disorders cost its health system an estimated $42.4 million yearly. In addition, there is an average of 217 inpatient hospitalizations and 496 emergency room visits attributed to eating disorders every year.
12 - Minnesota
Insider Monkey Eating Disorder Score - 67.6
Four of the five eating disorder-related search terms we used in our methodology had a Google Trend score of upwards of 70, making Minnesota one of the states with the highest rates of eating disorders. Bigorexia scored 33, which is higher than most of the states. For perspective, bigorexia scored 1 for Arkansas. Eating disorders cost Minnesota's economy an estimated $1.1 billion each year.
11 - Iowa
Insider Monkey Eating Disorder Score - 67.8
Emotional eating scored a perfect 100 in Iowa's 2023 Google Trends. The second most popular eating disorder-related search term in the state was binge eating, which scored 85. Eating disorders cost Iowa's economy an estimated $624.42 million every year.
10 - California
Insider Monkey Eating Disorder Score - 68.4
With an 83 score, body dysmorphia was the most popular search term in California. However, the other four eating disorder-related search terms were also quite popular, making it one of the top 10 states with the highest rates of eating disorders. Eating disorders cost an estimated $7.8 billion to California and cause more than 6,500 emergency room visits in the state.
9 - Indiana
Insider Monkey Eating Disorder Score - 69.2
Binge eating was the most popular eating disorder-related search term in Indiana, followed by emotional eating and anorexia. Eating disorders result in an average of 481 inpatient hospitalizations and more than 1100 ER visits each year. They cost Indiana's economy an estimated $1.3 billion annually. In addition, these eating disorders cost Indiana's government an estimated $362 million directly each year.
8 - Ohio
Insider Monkey Eating Disorder Score - 69.4
All five eating disorder-related search terms were significantly popular in Ohio, making it one of the top 10 states with the highest rates of eating disorders. The least popular search term -- bigorexia -- had a score of 50. Anorexia, binge eating, body dysmorphia, and emotional eating each had a score of 67, 85, 64, and 81 respectively. Eating disorders result in more than 1900 emergency room visits costing the state a total of $1 million each year. The estimated total yearly economic cost to Ohio is $2.3 billion.
7 - Georgia
Insider Monkey Eating Disorder Score - 69.6
Unlike most other states, the most popular eating disorder-related search term in Georgia was emotional eating. Eating disorders cost Georgia's economy an estimated total of $2.1 billion. On average, there are more than 1700 emergency room visits related to eating disorders each year. In addition, more than 750 inpatient hospitalizations cost the hospital system $6.7 million each year.
6 - Colorado
Insider Monkey Eating Disorder Score - 71
Colorado is 6th on our list of the states with the highest rates of eating disorders. Emotional eating was the most popular eating disorder-related search term in the state followed by body dysmorphia and anorexia. More than 400 inpatient hospitalizations each year cost Colorado's hospital system an average of $3.7 million each year. In addition, eating disorders cost Colorado's economy an estimated $1.1 billion each year.
