Nearly a million live with a diagnosable eating disorder and millions of others struggle with food and weight preoccupation.
Forty years ago, Dr. Dan Andreae and a team of committed health professionals set your sights on creating a support organization called The National Eating Disorder Information Centre” (NEDIC) to address the needs of those living with disordered eating behaviours such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and binge eating. Our Editors sat down with Dr. Andreae to discuss NEDIC’s history, growth, and role in supporting both men and women.
Q: Firstly, congratulations on being pioneers with this program and for helping so many people over the years. I’m curious – how and why did you get involved?
Dan: Forty years ago I came across an ad from the Health League of Canada calling for graduates with a Masters of Social Work degree to help found a national organization based out of Toronto General Hospital. I did hold an MSW and this was certainly a new area so thought it would be a challenge and applied. I was successful along with one other person and the goal was to set up what became NEDIC at Toronto General Hospital. There was a federal grant to cover costs so I became a co-founder of National Eating Disorder Information Centre and subsequently became the organization’s Executive Director. We quickly hired staff and began developing meaningful programs. I’m proud to say that the organization has grown to help thousands over the past four decades.
Q: Can we talk about the stigma and shame associated with eating disorders?
Dan: One of the biggest challenges is dealing with the shame and stigma. Individuals are often wrongfully blamed for their conditions along with mental health challenges that often go along with them. Thankfully, today that’s changing with faster diagnosis, better education, open discussions and more robust media coverage. Initiatives like Bell’s Let’s Talk campaign have also helped.
Q: What contributes to a person developing an eating disorder?
Dan: In some cases, societal messages and attitudes around what is considered an “acceptable” and desirable weight can contribute to the development of an eating disorder. But conditions like anorexia nervosa and bulimia develop in any population or socioeconomic group—regardless of whether the person has been exposed to external pressures.
People do not realize that eating disorders are complex with different subtypes. They are defined as a mental health condition which, along with opioid consumption have the highest mortality rate.
Q: Is there a particular age or gender that is prone to unhealthy behaviours and eating-related preoccupations that affect their overall health?
Dan: Really, anyone can develop an eating disorder at any age although it is most disproportionately affecting young girls and women. Approximately 1 in 4 women are estimated to have anorexia nervosa or bulimia with 3% of women over 60 living with an eating disorder. Eating disorders can also affect men. Research shows that 1 in 3 people living with binge eating disorder are males.
Q: How can you determine whether or not someone has an eating disorder?
Dan: You can not tell the kind of eating disorder based on weight size, which is why so are often overlooked or not diagnosed. We can also can rely on an affected person’s size or weight to identify which type of eating disorder they have. There are signs, however, that can potentially indicate an eating disorder or one in process.
1) Individuals who are preoccupied with their bodies and compulsively go to the gym a great deal may be candidates.
2) They may eat sparingly and have a lack of appetite or interest in food.
3) Often a person’s range of preferred foods becomes even more limited and their “picky eating” gets steadily worse.
4) People diagnosed with bulimia will eat and then purge to eliminate food.
5) Someone may feel unable to stop eating with recurrent binge eating episodes are associated with negative psychological and social problems but without the compensatory behaviours.
Q: How can a person obtain treatment and what options are there?
Dan: Often a team approach is involved to meet medical, psychological and emotional needs. Treatments include a variety of approaches talk therapy and behavioural interventions such as cognitive behavioural therapy as well as medical monitoring and nutritional education and/or medications.
If possible the family or partners are involved as emotional support and acceptance is essential for successful treatment. The costs of not acting are not limited to medical consequences but extend broadly to involving psychological and emotional distress, individual and family stresses, financial costs and lost opportunities.
Q: Can we talk about the way forward for NEDIC?
Dan: Today NEDIC is still based at Toronto General Hospital, run by a dedicated Executive Director named Suzanne Phillips, and a board of directors.
NEDIC operates Canada’s only national toll-free helpline and a recently introduced live chat service on supporting individuals living with and affected by eating disorders. Calls are confidential. NEDIC maintains a website www.nedic.ca and a Canada-wide directory of service providers.
Q: Are there additional resources available?
Dan: The NEDIC team are experts in community outreach and deliver presentations to audiences of all ages. They facilitate workshops for educators and service providers and disseminate fact sheets, newsletters and pamphlets to diverse audiences. They also coordinate activities for Eating Disorder Awareness Week (February 1-7) in 2026 and develop public education campaigns to raise awareness, host national conferences on body image , self esteem and eating disorders.
Call the NEDIC helpline toll-free at 1-866-633-4220 or (416-340-4156 in the GTA) or chat online.
Email: nedic@uhn.ca. Visit: nedic.ca/resources.
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You can chat with JEM to learn more about eating disorders and find resources from NEDIC. JEM works best when you click the buttons or type a response which generally aligns with one of the responses in the chat. A conversation with JEM is not monitored.
This is a chatbot is for Canadians and was originally developed at Monash University. It is rule based and was co-designed with people with a lived experience. This means that all of JEM chatbot’s conversations have been pre-programed by the research team. The chatbot cannot come up with its own responses. Visit nedic.ca
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