Decoding Emotional Eating

January 15, 2009 · Posted in Emotional Eating

You’ve probably heard that Oprah has gone public with her latest weight regain and her struggles with emotional eating. She recently said, “My drug of choice used to be potato chips. Now this year, it was organic, multigrain blue chips — but a bag of them.”

My first thought? Wow, maybe Oprah has unresolved anger issues. What does anger have to do with potato chips and corn chips? Well, people who work in the field of emotional eating have long known that we crave different flavors and textures depending on the emotional needs we’re trying to “fix” with the food.

Recently I found a very good article on intuitive eating that described this phenomenon very clearly:

Ask yourself: “When I’m feeling the urge to eat, what part of my body actually wants the food?” For example, if you’re craving chips, it may be that the crunching relieves stress in your jaw, which may be related to anger and frustration. If your lips and tongue crave food’s feeling and flavor, you may need nurturing. Or if it’s your throat that’s “hungry”—your gullet wants to feel movement—you may need to speak your mind on something. “Feeling hunger in your throat may also signal that your life feels chaotic or out of control,” says Kratina.

Now, when I’m not hungry and I start dreaming about pretzels or ice cream, I’ve got a head start on trying to figure out what’s really going on