Peer fellowships · in plain language
Seven doors. Honestly described. None endorsed.
Seven fellowships serve people struggling with eating — and they disagree with each other on the deepest question there is: whether recovery means abstinence from certain foods, a structured plan, or no food rules at all. Here is the map, with no favourite and no plan endorsed. People find recovery in every one of them.
Read this first — our independence. Eating Recovery Help is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to any fellowship on this page, nor with NEDIC. Everything below is our own plain-language description of publicly known differences, written to help you choose a door; the fellowships themselves are the only authority on their programs, and meeting information lives on their official sites — which is where every link below goes. We express no view on which approach is "right."
About food plans — the one rule we never bend: several fellowships below organize recovery around structured food plans. We describe those plans neutrally as structured food plans some members use — they are not medical guidance, and no plan is universally safe. Discuss any food plan with a clinician before starting, especially if you are medically compromised, purging, pregnant, or managing a condition like diabetes. If restriction is part of your pattern, a plan built on restriction deserves particular caution — raise exactly that question with your care team.
Broadest door · plans optional
OA — Overeaters Anonymous
The largest and oldest of the seven, open to compulsive eating, bingeing, restricting, and bulimia alike. There is no required way of eating: members who use a plan of eating develop their own, individually — OA's own literature suggests professional input. The widest network of meetings in Canada, in person and online.
A distinct philosophy · balance, not abstinence
EDA — Eating Disorders Anonymous
EDA breaks from the abstinence model on purpose. Recovery is framed as balance — there are no forbidden foods, milestones are not counted in days, and perfection is explicitly not the goal. Many members come from anorexia or bulimia, where rigid food rules were the illness, not the cure.
Structured · addiction model
FA — Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous
FA treats food addiction the way other fellowships treat alcohol: members practice abstinence from individually identified trigger foods within a defined structure of eating, worked closely with a sponsor. A demanding, tightly held program that some members credit with recovery nothing else touched.
Structured · specific abstinence
FAA — Food Addicts Anonymous
FAA centres on abstinence from specific substances its members treat as addictive — supported by a structured food plan some members use. A smaller fellowship than FA, with a strong phone- and online-meeting culture that makes a first meeting easy to reach.
Structured · sponsor-directed
CEA-HOW — Compulsive Eaters Anonymous
The HOW in the name is the program: honesty, open-mindedness, willingness — expressed through a structured food plan some members use, committed to a sponsor daily. The most scaffolded of the seven; members who thrive here often say the structure itself was the relief.
Structured · the GreySheet
GSA — GreySheeters Anonymous
GSA is organized around the GreySheet — a specific structured food plan some members use, followed precisely and obtained through a sponsor. We describe it neutrally: it is not medical guidance, it is not published as a public diet, and like every plan on this page it belongs in a conversation with a clinician first.
Anorexia & bulimia focus
ABA — Anorexics and Bulimics Anonymous
The fellowship written specifically for anorexia and bulimia. Its concept of abstinence is behavioural, not dietary — surrendering the disordered behaviours themselves, restricting and purging, rather than abstaining from any food. A smaller fellowship; much of its presence is online.
Whichever door you try
Keep a clinician in the loop
Eating disorders are medical conditions with medical risks — the fellowships themselves are peer support, not treatment, and the good ones say so. A meeting and a care team are not competing options; most recovery stories here include both.
The clinical pathway → · NEDIC can help you find it: 1-866-633-4220 · nedic.ca ↗
※ Descriptions are our own editorial summaries for orientation only — always confirm each program's approach on its official site. Programs and plans belong to the fellowships. Meeting times change; the official sites are the only source worth trusting.
Choosing a door
A rough compass, not a verdict.
If rules were the illness
Read EDA first
If restriction, rigidity, or purging is your pattern, EDA's balance philosophy — and ABA's behaviour-focused abstinence — were written with you in mind. Structured food plans deserve extra clinical caution here.
If it feels like addiction
Compare OA, FA, and FAA
If certain foods feel genuinely like a substance you can't moderate, the addiction-model fellowships meet that experience by name. Read how each defines abstinence on its own site — then bring the plan to a clinician before day one.
If structure itself is the relief
Look at CEA-HOW and GSA
Some people exhale the moment someone else holds the plan. If that's you, the most scaffolded programs may fit — with the same non-negotiable: a clinician looks at any plan first.
When a meeting isn't the whole answer.
If your body is carrying the cost, treatment comes first — and it exists here. If the red flags on our home page are anywhere near your life, if the pattern has years behind it, or if every attempt to stop has buckled at the same point: specialized eating-disorder programs exist across Canada, many provincially funded, all reached most directly through a doctor's or NP's assessment. Peer support walks alongside; it doesn't lead.
In crisis right now? Call or text 988, any hour. NEDIC: 1-866-633-4220.