AI and Eating Behavior: What Actually Helps and What Can Hurt

Eating disorders are a delicate subject, and AI should be discussed carefully here. An app does not diagnose and does not replace a doctor, a psychotherapist or a dietitian who works with eating disorders. That is why we separate three things: tools that support recovery alongside treatment, tools for a more mindful attitude to food, and what can do harm.

The main points first

• Apps for eating disorders are support alongside treatment, not treatment.
• For a person in recovery, calorie counting and weight-loss goals can be harmful. Discuss this with your doctor.
• General-purpose AI chatbots are not built to help with eating disorders. The story of the Tessa chatbot showed this.
• If thoughts about food, weight or body take a lot of energy and get in the way of life, it is a reason to talk to a specialist.

Apps that support recovery alongside treatment

Recovery Record is a journal of meals, thoughts and feelings for recovery from anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, ARFID and other eating disorders. You can share it with your treatment team, and there is a separate app for professionals. Its developers recommend it for people in treatment, and according to its website more than a million people use it.

Brighter Bite is a free app with no ads. It has a "Coping Chat" with more than 20 techniques based on ACT and DBT, journals for meals (with photos), mood and thoughts, a self-assessment test and a PDF report export. One review notes that it is a relatively new app with few reviews.

Rise Up + Recover offers tracking, coping skills, summaries you can export for a specialist and a search for local specialists. The mention in recommendations dates from 2020, so check that the app is still maintained.

Nourishly is not built only for eating disorders: it is an app about nutrition and well-being with a food journal, symptoms and mood, and a connection to dietitians. According to a review, it can support recovery only together with clinical treatment.

When an app is not enough

Equip offers virtual treatment for all major diagnoses, including ARFID, and according to a review it works with many US insurance plans. Within Health is a specialized provider of virtual eating disorder treatment. Check on their websites whether they are available in your country. Eating Disorder Hope is an independent resource about eating disorders (education, finding specialists), created with the support of Within Health.

Paying more attention to food, without calories

Some journals have no calorie or macro counting. They record not "how much" but "why, where, with whom and how you felt": Food Diary & Intuitive Eating, Shutterbite, Mindful Bites, Intuitive Eating Buddy, Ate Food Diary and Eated. Am I Hungry? is a virtual coach by author and physician Michelle May for less emotional eating. Eat Right Now is a mindfulness program that runs for several weeks, with a 7-day free trial according to its description. Bea, according to its developers, offers in-the-moment support when you feel the urge to overeat.

These are supporting tools. If binge episodes keep coming back and wear you out, you need a specialist.

Mood, anxiety and sleep

General well-being tools do not treat eating disorders, but they can support: Wysa (a chatbot built on CBT, DBT and mindfulness techniques, with human coaches for an extra fee), Youper, Earkick, Daylio, Moodfit, Finch, Sanvello, Insight Timer, Headspace and Calm.

Online therapy

BetterHelp works by subscription: messages, calls and video with a licensed therapist. Talkspace focuses on messaging and offers psychiatry. There are also Amwell, Teladoc Health, Grow Therapy, Online-Therapy.com and others. Not every platform has specialists in eating disorders, so ask before you pay. Terms and availability depend on the country.

The lesson of Tessa

In 2022 the US National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) launched the Tessa chatbot to replace its phone helpline. In May 2023 NEDA took it down after reports that the chatbot recommended weight loss, counting calories and measuring body fat, which can make eating disorders worse. The association itself said the responses may have been harmful and unrelated to the program. The takeaway is simple: in this area an AI mistake is costly, so choose tools built with specialists and do not rely on general-purpose chatbots.

What to watch out for

• Calorie counting and weight-loss goals. They can harm people in recovery. Discuss this with your doctor.
• General-purpose chatbots. They are not built to help with eating disorders and can give harmful advice.
• Privacy. Food and emotion journals are sensitive data. Check who can access them and whether you can delete them.

How to choose

• Can a specialist see your entries (with your consent)?
• Does the app push you to count calories and weight?
• Who built it, and were eating disorder specialists involved?
• What happens to your data?
• Is there a doctor or therapist involved, not just an app?

Where to find help

Contact a doctor, a psychotherapist or a psychiatrist. For readers in the US: the National Alliance for Eating Disorders has a free helpline, see its website for current contacts. In an acute situation, call the emergency services in your country.

Summary

AI can be a handy helper: a journal, a reminder, a way not to be alone between visits to a specialist. But it is people, not apps, who provide treatment. All the tools mentioned are collected in the "Mental health and eating behavior" subcategory of our catalog.