Does your relationship with food need help?

Food plays a central role in our lives—we think about it, buy it, prepare it, and enjoy it. However, our relationship with food can evolve over time. Factors like aging, illness, pregnancy, parenthood, exhaustion, shift work, allergies, finances, and accessibility all influence our eating habits. Additionally, our body image and the way we handle emotions can change as we move through different life stages. Often, these factors—eating behaviors, body image, and emotions—are interconnected and shape our relationship with food in significant ways.

This blog delves into the signs that it might be time to seek professional help to improve your relationship with food.

Emotional Eating

Emotional eating happens when we eat in response to emotions rather than physical hunger. Many people turn to food for comfort or to avoid dealing with uncomfortable feelings like stress, sadness, or depression. It’s also common to eat out of boredom or loneliness. From an early age, food is linked to comfort, nurturing, celebrations, and family, making emotional eating a natural but complex behavior.

While occasional emotional eating is normal, regularly using food for comfort can negatively impact both physical and mental health. It often leads to overeating, which can increase the risk of obesity and make weight management difficult.

“Every day, I wake up determined to eat better. I want to be healthy… but food is comfort to me. If I’m sad, I crave chips, fried food, or chocolate… I try to avoid these things, but I struggle.”

Why Do We Emotionally Eat?

Everyone has their own reasons for emotional eating, and these reasons can be complex. Understanding your personal triggers is a key first step in managing emotional eating. A psychologist can help you identify the specific emotions and situations that drive your impulse to eat. Here are some common reasons:

Temporary Distraction and Relief

The anticipation and enjoyment of eating favorite foods can provide temporary distraction and a sense of relief or happiness. This can happen for two main reasons:

Sensory Pleasure: The taste and texture of comfort foods offer immediate gratification.

Brain Reward System: Calorie-dense, high-fat, sugary, and salty foods stimulate the brain’s reward system, releasing feel-good chemicals like dopamine, creating a strong link between these foods and happiness.

“When I’m angry, I eat and cry. Afterward, I feel guilty. I know it’s bad for me, but in the moment, I believe eating will make me feel better.”

Sometimes, we prioritize the immediate comfort of eating over long-term health goals, choosing short-term relief even if it means feeling worse later.

Family, Culture, and Society

As children, our eating habits are heavily influenced by our families. These early habits often carry into adulthood, especially if food was used as a reward or comfort. Culture and society also shape our eating habits through rituals, celebrations, and social gatherings that often center around food. Additionally, societal influences, like food advertising and availability, reinforce the emotional connection to eating.

Avoidance and loss of interest

A loss of interest in eating, especially if it was something we previously enjoyed, can indicate deeper issues. This disinterest can extend to activities like shopping, cooking, and preparing food, reflecting underlying emotional or psychological struggles such as stress, depression, or anxiety.

Avoidance of certain foods may also be driven by sensory experiences or fears. We might avoid foods because of their taste, texture, or smell, or due to fears of negative consequences like choking or allergic reactions. This can create a cycle of anxiety and avoidance, further reducing our willingness to eat.

Negative Body Image

Body image reflects how we perceive and feel about our bodies, including aspects like weight, age, and strength. This perception is shaped by culture, society, and personal experiences, and it can change over time.

Negative body image can lead to unhealthy eating behaviors. For instance, dissatisfaction with our appearance may drive us to diet or restrict eating to change our body shape. Alternatively, negative emotions tied to body image may lead to comfort eating, creating a cycle where unhealthy eating behaviors reinforce negative emotions.

Obsession with eating healthy

An obsession with healthy eating can lead to unhelpful and even harmful eating behaviors. This fixation might cause us to impose strict nutritional rules on ourselves, excluding certain foods or adhering to rigid diets. While the intention may be to improve health, these rules can become disruptive, leading to nutritional deficiencies and social isolation as we avoid events involving food.

Experiencing guilt and shame after eating

People can experience feelings of guilt and shame before, during and after eating. This can be due to the type or the amount of food consumed or both.

How a psychologist can help with emotional eating

If you are concerned about your relationship with food it’s important to seek professional help. If any of the content in this blog resonates with you then consider reaching out to a psychologist who will be able to support you to develop a healthier relationship with food and or body image.

Therapy with a psychologist will be tailored to your specific needs and could involve helping you identify your thoughts and feelings around food and eating. A psychologist can also assist with helping you develop strategies to manage your emotions and with acceptance of who your are.

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Medmate’s tailored treatment plans address your individual health needs, together with a free MyFitnessPal membership, this allows you to share your food diaries with your practitioner for better monitoring and adjustments. Together, they create a holistic program that enhances accountability, provides professional support, and promotes long-term success in achieving weight management goals.

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