Guidance and practices to help relieve guilt around food.
It’s rare that any of us walk into the kitchen and think, ‘what’s the healthiest and most nutritious thing I can make for dinner tonight?’ How we decide what to eat is rarely based solely on nutrition. Many factors come into play, convenience, our emotional state, guilt, shame, or apathy, to name a few. Without a mindful approach to food, it’s easy for us to fall into problematic eating patterns, which can cause issues such as eating disorders, depression, anxiety, or obesity.
So, what are some signs that you may have an unhealthy relationship with food?
- You eat to a strict schedule, regardless of how hungry you are
- You feel guilt or shame about eating
- You categorize food into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ and ban certain foods
- You eat lots of food in a short space of time to the point of feeling uncomfortable or sick
- You think social anxiety around eating in public
- You have a history of yo-yo dieting or following the latest diet fads.
And, alternatively, signs of a healthy relationship with food include:
- Eating foods you enjoy
- Seeing food as neutral, neither good or bad
- Not choosing food purely based on calories
- Enjoying all food in moderation
- Being open to trying new foods
- Practicing a balanced diet over a restrictive one
- Recognising your own physical hunger cues and listening to them
Our relationship with food is likely to fluctuate and change with the pace and stresses in our lives. Sometimes, we may feel we have a positive and healthy relationship with food, but this can change daily, just like any other relationship.
Below are some key, actionable practices to develop a healthier relationship with food:
- Recognise your hunger cues
Are you hungry, or are you bored, on auto-pilot, or looking for an emotional fix? Many of us fall into patterns of eating that don’t necessarily serve us. Recognizing when you are physically hungry and working to your body’s physical cues, as opposed to emotional cues, can help prevent overeating.
Physical cues include: Slowly increases and felt in your stomach, empty stomach, stomach growling, lower energy, can be satisfied with a range of different foods.
Emotional cues include: Instant hunger, felt in your mind, repetitive thoughts, craving for a particular type of food and nothing else, hard to satisfy.
- Avoid eating your meals in front of a screen
Eating meals in front of your phone or TV can encourage mindless eating. Your brain is distracted by what is happening on-screen rather than recognizing how much food you’re eating. There is a delay between us eating food and our stomach realizing it, of about 20 minutes. Therefore, eating at a slower pace allows our stomach to recognize how much food has been eaten and tell us we’re full sooner. Because of this, it’s advised to eat meals at a table, away from screens. Eating and talking with friends or family is also an excellent way to slow down your mealtimes.
- Plan ahead
To curb emotional eating, it can be helpful to plan your meals. This encourages you to be more mindful about your food rather than reaching for the most convenient thing at the end of the day. If you often feel too tired to cook, perhaps plan some simple meals that don’t require much preparation or prep meals ahead of time to reduce the energy needed to cook. It can also help to have a small snack, such as a piece of fruit or a handful of nuts, to give your energy levels a boost before cooking.
- Don’t cut out foods you enjoy entirely
Diets often fail as they focus on restrictions rather than sustainable lifestyle changes. Once we inevitably stop dieting and allow ourselves the foods we had been restricting, many of us gain back the weight and more. Restricting foods also plays into the narrative that some foods are good, and some are bad, leading to shame and guilt around food. A much healthier way is to enjoy everything in moderation. Not simply to lose weight, but to nourish our bodies. A balanced diet, which doesn’t completely cut out foods, is much more sustainable in the long run.
Like with any relationship, nurturing a good relationship with food takes patience, time, and self-love. However, if you are struggling to resolve your issues with food yourself and think you may require professional help, here are some resources you may find helpful.