FoodCensor: Promoting Mindful Digital Food Content Consumption for People with Eating Disorders

Digital food content’s popularity is underscored by recent studies revealing its addictive nature and association with disordered eating. Notably, individuals with eating disorders exhibit a positive correlation between their digital food content consumption and disordered eating behaviors. Based on these findings, we introduce FoodCensor, an intervention designed to empower individuals with eating disorders to make informed, conscious, and health-oriented digital food content consumption decisions. FoodCensor (i) monitors and hides passively exposed food content on smartphones and personal computers, and (ii) prompts reflective questions for users when they spontaneously search for food content. We deployed FoodCensor to people with binge eating disorder or bulimia (n=22) for three weeks. Our user study reveals that FoodCensor fostered self-awareness and self-reflection about unconscious digital food content consumption habits, enabling them to adopt healthier behaviors consciously. Furthermore, we discuss design implications for promoting healthier digital content consumption practices for vulnerable populations to specific content types.