Hello love,
I wanted to talk about processed food because, while emotional eating isn’t just about food, food does play a significant role in the process.
When we’re trying to address emotional eating, we often feel out of control with food, leading us to try and regain control through restrictive diets, intense exercise plans, or even intuitive eating. All of these strategies offer a piece of the puzzle, but they don’t provide the whole solution.
For example, with intuitive eating, we treat food as neutral. We don’t judge it as “good” or “bad” based on whether it’s health-giving or health-depleting.
While, in a sense, food can be considered neutral, we must understand the qualities of food because they directly impact our body and emotions.
That’s why we turn to food in the first place—to cover up pain and discomfort. Food triggers a biochemical reaction in our body, releasing dopamine, which makes us feel good momentarily.
So yes, we need to release that layer of shame, judgment, and criticism we put on ourselves.
AND…
We must recognize that food has qualities that impact us, both physically and emotionally.
This is something I work with my clients on—helping them understand how food affects their emotional eating patterns because the picture out there isn’t always clear.
Some programs simplify how to look at food without considering what’s truly health-giving for our bodies.
Let’s explore where processed foods come into play in the video below:
- 1:42 – What is processed food designed to do, and how does this impact emotional eating?
- 2:40 – What we use food for as emotional eaters
- 3:20 – Processed foods drive more emotional eating because of this, with a real-world example
- 4:35 – The two pieces of the puzzle: processed foods and emotional eating
- 5:13 – How to break free from this loop
- 7:11 – The shift that happens when you resolve your emotional eating
- 8:20 – The role food plays in your emotional eating
- 9:30 – Summary
- 10:12 – Next steps and free resources
Next Steps
1. If you are ready to start your journey to resolving your Emotional Eating you can download my free guide “What Are You Truly Hungry For?” to start discerning true from emotional hunger and catching your triggers HERE.
2. If you are ready to transform your emotional eating so that you can get to ease, peace and confidence around food and in your body with a step by step process and guidance then find out more about The Emotional Eating Evolution Program HERE.
To true nourishment,
~Michelle
Certified Holistic Nutritionist Specializing in Emotional Eating
