More than 40% of US high school students reported binge eating at least once in the past month, according to the first national estimates of the behavior among teenagers, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The figures come from a supplement to the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, drawing on the 2025 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a nationally representative survey of roughly 6,900 students who answered a question about binge eating for the first time in the survey's history.
The numbers
Overall, 40.5% of students said they had binge eaten — defined as eating an unusually large amount of food in a short period while feeling a loss of control — on at least one day in the previous 30 days. A narrower measure, three or more such days in the past month, was reported by 17.2% of students.
Girls reported frequent binge eating at a higher rate than boys, 18.6% versus 15.9%. The gap was wider by race and ethnicity: 20.5% of Hispanic students and 18.7% of Black students reported binge eating on three or more days, compared with 14.6% of White students and 9.9% of Middle Eastern or North African students. An estimate of 25.6% among American Indian or Alaska Native students was flagged by the CDC as too imprecise to draw firm conclusions. The agency found no significant differences by grade level.
Why it matters
Disordered-eating questions were dropped from the survey in 2015 to make room for questions about then-rising teen vaping, and advocates had pushed for roughly a decade to get a binge-eating item restored, according to a STAT News report on the findings. Ariel Beccia, a researcher at Boston Children's Hospital, called the numbers extremely alarming and said they challenge the stereotype that eating disorders mainly affect White girls, noting that food insecurity and economic strain are both linked to higher binge-eating rates.
The CDC report also found binge eating closely tracked with other measures of teen distress: students who checked social media hourly or more reported frequent binge eating at nearly double the rate of infrequent users, and the behavior was far more common among students reporting poor mental health, persistent sadness, or suicidal thoughts. Nutrition researchers quoted in that coverage, including Lindsey Smith Taillie of the University of North Carolina, pointed to the design of ultra-processed foods — cheap, convenient and heavily marketed — as one likely contributor, while cautioning that the data cannot establish cause and effect.
What's next
The CDC said the findings support continued surveillance to track trends, further research into the mechanisms linking binge eating to social media use and mental health, and school-based prevention efforts including staff training and media literacy programs. Advocates also want future surveys to ask about fasting, dieting and purging, questions currently available only through an optional module that states and school districts may choose to use.
