obsessed with food
How much time do you spend thinking about food each day?
Do you ever hold yourself back from yummy foods offered for fear that it will ‘throw you off’ or you won’t be able to just have one?
Are you waking up with a plan of how your eating will look today to stay under a certain number of calories, or just ‘be good’?
Have you recently watched or read someone’s health/nutrition advice that helped create a fear of certain foods/nutrients?
Do you fear judgment for eating in front of others and wait until you’re alone to eat instead?
In today's diet culture, the ideas behind ‘healthy eating’ are construed with an alarming amount of misinformed rhetoric, and scare tactics. It starts innocently enough: we want to eat “healthier”, so we follow messages spewed across every media platform imaginable regarding which foods are “good" and which are “bad” and should be avoided. Even if we aren’t paying attention to the media on this topic, we can gather these ideas simply from walking around a grocery store and assessing labels for buzz words on packaging claiming foods to be “guilt-free”, “all natural”, “better for you.”
However, this simple distinction of good vs bad can quickly spiral into a web of shame and guilt. The more we try to control what we eat, the more power we inadvertently give to those forbidden foods, or maybe just food in general (because our body recognizes this behavior as restriction). Suddenly, a cookie isn't just a snack—it's a symbol of our willpower, and eating it becomes a battleground of conflicting emotions. Our brain is on high alert given the stress that we’ve placed on certain foods, plus the effort that we put into avoiding them, and when those foods do become available or “allowed” to any degree— we can’t seem to get enough.
This obsession with food isn't just a mental game; it affects us biologically too. When we restrict ourselves from certain foods or attempt to forgo our hunger, our bodies naturally react by fixating on food even more. It's a survival mechanism—our brains see this as withholding nutrients and feel threatened that we might starve. This creates a cycle of thoughts about the very foods we're trying to avoid. Before long, every decision around eating becomes fraught with anxiety and overthinking.
The goal is to gradually work toward normalizing and neutralizing these fear foods, reducing the power they hold over us. Sometimes, the first step isn’t even eating the food—it’s simply imagining it, picturing ourselves consuming it, and becoming more comfortable with the idea. Over time, small, manageable exposures help shift our mindset, allowing us to integrate these foods back into our lives without anxiety or guilt.
Breaking free from this cycle requires a different approach—one that prioritizes listening to our bodies over external rules. This is why our dietitians use intuitive eating, which emphasizes restoring trust in our body's signals. Working with an intuitive eating dietitian can be transformative. They can help you re-learn how to recognize and respond to hunger and fullness cues, without judgment or restriction. Through this process, foods are neutralized; they're no longer symbols of guilt or reward but simply nourishment. By understanding and respecting our body's natural rhythms, we can cultivate a healthier relationship with food—one that's based on self-trust and acceptance rather than fear and control.
Check out “Intuitive Eating” to learn more about how to build a healthy relationship with food and foster trust with your body.
Want more resources? Here’s what our dietitians recommend