Enjoyment of food and emotional eating

In my weekly skills group I said “emotional eating isn’t always a negative”. It was about setting context around an event. So while using food to avoid emotion isn’t ideal, it may be an acceptable coping strategy in that moment.

For instance, let’s say something traumatic happens and the choice is between a donut and a bottle of vodka, for me that donut is going to be the better choice. As a recovering alcoholic I know the damage that one drink will bring. But food, food is different. We don’t get to avoid food, we have to learn to live with it in our lives even if we struggle to manage it.

Abstinence-only isn’t an effective strategy with nutrition or sex; it’s gonna happen so let’s work on better choices. Long term we want to develop strategies for alternative coping skills but in acute situations we need to choose best.

As far as enjoyment of food, if we completely ignore the hedonic aspects, if we lose all joy around food, we risk it becoming another mindless task that we suffer through on our path through life. Food is a part of us, a part of history and culture so it will be a part of celebrations and joy. We don’t have to look forward to certain foods but we also don’t want to become completely ambivalent.

I’m definitely guilty of the latter. Being someone who has eaten almost primarily for function (and in a surplus) for the better part of three years running, food can become a bit monotonous. This is also the risk of macro counting; food becomes a series of numbers. This can impede relationships and social interaction (what’s that again?) and we know that those things may have as equal a role in longevity and cognitive health as nutrition does.

Balance doesn’t necessarily mean “all things being equal” but we also want to ensure that we don’t lose quality of life in one regard in order to see incremental improvements in another. Be aware of food choice, be aware of the nutritional makeup of what we eat, and also be aware if those details begin to overtake the basic joys of life. Self improvement is about making our lives better, don’t let the minutiae overshadow the purpose. There is joy in food, friends and family. We don’t want to lose that with our weight.