Food Insecurity and Insurgency of Eating Disorders: A Legal and Policy Appraisal

Abstract

Some recent studies have found that food insecurity is one of the factors that can lead to the insurgence of eating disorders, thus challenging the stereotype that associates eating disorders with high-income, Western, white, young women. However, this ground-breaking research and its implications do not seem to have been taken into account by legal scholars. In order to fill this gap, this article explores whether and how the law and policy of food security, and the relevant human rights international monitoring system are dealing with this link between eating disorders and food insecurity. Our analysis shows that these legal and policy frameworks have failed to address this relationship. We argue that the circumstance that marginalised food insecure populations, irrispective of sex, age, and ethinicity, might also suffer from eating disorders should be recognized by policy makers as it could bring to more comprehensive legal and policy responses.