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Food For Thought: Demeanor Determines Consumption
Food for Thought is a regular column on A Beautiful Ripple Effect! It is written by nutrition + inspiration guru extraordinaire Whitney Ahneman. The column is published every other Monday! Check out Whitney’s introduction video about the series in this post!
Demeanor Determines Consumption
Have you ever thought that your feelings have had an impact on your eating habits? Food is meant to be the means to the end. The physical source of energy used to drive our bodies. That doesn’t mean that our emotions don’t impact us though! Emotions and food can be so closely intertwined that it’s hard to understand exactly where one ends and the other begins.
Boredom? Anxiety? Sadness? Happiness? Almost any emotion can drive a person to eat. Eating is a celebration of life, death, and quite literally everything in between. I’m writing this because I want to have a perfectly open and honest discussion about emotions and food. There is always a lot to talk about when you bring emotionality into the picture, but I think it’s important for people to think about what’s going on in their lives and to recognize how the ups and downs of life are impacting consumption. It’s interesting to take a good look at what’s going on because it can be quite the eye opener, even for the most innocent of culprits.
How we are feeling directly impacts what we decide to put into our mouths. Like it or not, it is the reality that most of us face. There is no right or wrong to this, no algorithm to figure it out and make the perfect choice every time. The reality is that our emotions can and will impact our food choices, so recognizing this fact and controlling it as best we can is crucial to management.
I would love some feedback on this one because everyone is so different! What emotions drive you to eat? Or not eat? What foods do you reach for? Do you realize what you’re doing as you’re doing it or does it sink in later? Would a higher level of awareness help or hurt the situation? I would love to think that greater awareness and information could only help the scenario but that isn’t always the case.
I do want to emphasize that there is no right or wrong reaction. I am raising the issue to prompt you to think and question your own habits. Think of Food For Thought as that friend you know you need but don’t always want around.
To health and happiness. And all the delicious meals that come with it.
Responses welcome!
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If you enjoy this topic, be sure to check out my first Food For Thought post published six weeks ago: Food For Thought: Oh Breakfast, Where Art Thou? (includes a free PDF!) , my second post published four weeks ago: You Are What You Eat, Literally, as well as my third post published two weeks ago: Inflammation and You.
Related "ripples" you might enjoy:
- Food for Thought: You are What You Eat, Literally
- Food For Thought: What is Seasonal?
- Food For Thought: Non-Yucky Thoughts on Successful Aging
- Food For Thought: Inflammation and You
- Food For Thought: Holiday Hot Topics
This entry was posted on Monday, August 16th, 2010 at 7:00 am and is filed under Food for Thought, Guest Bloggers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
7 Responses to “Food For Thought: Demeanor Determines Consumption”
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by torforgeauthors and Spring Inspiration, Leigh Charles. Leigh Charles said: Food For Thought: Demeanor Determines Consumption: Food for Thought is a regular column on A Beautiful Ripple Eff… http://bit.ly/byfhfi [...]
Well said. For me it’s about the chocolate, bread, and chips-Ugh!
(I got a slight chuckle for the request of ‘feeback.’).
Thanks for joining the conversation Linda (despite my typo!). What emotions or demeanor drive you to eat these? And don’t stay on the negative! I’m sure there are spectacular foods you instinctually go for with certain emotions or scenarios. It’s funny how we associate specific feelings with reaching for specific foods. I know I crave crunchy interactive food when I’m bored. Now I just go straight for chewing a piece of gum… And I crave fresh fruits and sauteed vegetables when I’m happy. I guess luckily I lead my life feeling more happy than bored!
Whitney´s last blog ..Apps for Healthy Kids – Voting Time!
HI Whitney! Nice to see another post!
After giving some thought to your query, I realize that procrastination seems to fuel my drives to the kitchen for snacky foods; it gives me a valid reason not to do what I should be doing.
I see now how a heightened awareness of why I’m eating will help me to reason away the urges. Additionally, I have been trying to limit my intake of empty calories as well as increasing protein and finding that the cravings for carb-laden and/or sugary treats is diminishing.
Thank you for opening my eyes to the emotional connections to food–I feel empowered!
Hi Duff! I’m so happy to hear that this raised your awareness level a bit! And it’s amazing how once you stop feeding the body the sugar it stops craving the sugar. Another example of how “you are what you eat”… The body craves what it’s used to!
Glad to hear you feel empowered!
Whitney´s last blog ..Apps for Healthy Kids – Voting Time!
Emotions are such an important factor for our health. It’s important to have insight into how emotional hunger can drive our desire for unhealthy “comfort foods.” The next step is unhooking the trigger and healing the emotional issue instead of staving off unwanted feelings by numbing out with food. Thanks for raising this issue Carolyn and Whitney!
Linda Gabriel´s last blog ..What Are You “Weighting” For
happiness, sadness, celebration, stress, every emotion drives me to food! usually carbs and/or sweets. I used to not realize what I was doing until after the fact and felt the stupid guilt that comes. But after a lot of nutrition counseling and self work, I’ve gotten to a point where I realize what is happening and I’m a lot better at stopping it. I’ve come to use a relaxing moment with hot tea instead of stuffing my face. I feel more calm and in tune with my mind and body when I do this.
Teri [a foodie stays fit]´s last blog ..The Weekender my healthiest dessert ever