What Does Food Mean To You?
October 2, 2006 – 8:02 pmI was giving this question some thought earlier today because food is a basic human need.
From a physiological standpoint, food is just energy needed to keep our bodies running, which seems like a very simple premise. You eat when you’re hungry and don’t eat when you’re not.
From an emotional standpoint, food is a different story. Food can be turned to for just about any reason. You can eat because you’re bored, you’re sad, you’re lonely, you’re happy, you’re feeling down, you’re celebrating.. and any one of 100 other emotions you might be feeling.
The only problem is, turning to food to help you deal with every emotion can lead to other problems like being overweight or related disease, so it isn’t a logical way to deal with them.
What are your feelings on food? Do you use it as a crutch?
Any suggestions for people that eat to deal with their emotions?
3 Responses to “What Does Food Mean To You?”
I used to see food differently than I do now. I used to think that I had to eat whatever was there for me to eat. If I ate breaksfast before coming to work, but someone brought in donuts, I would eat them even though I wasn’t hungry. I used to think I had to eat the birthday cake at parties, even though I’m not really a big fan of cake. And I thought that I had to eat pizza, chinese, junk food.
Now, I know that food is to fuel my body. I still have an occasional splurge, but I find that what I used to love so much makes me feel sick to my stomach after I eat it. It’s very difficult to start a healthy eating lifestyle. But once you do it for a week, you don’t crave what you missed eating so much on that first day.
By Shelly on Oct 3, 2006
Donuts in the office can be hard to resist, so kudos on passing on them!
Changing the way you eat can be difficult, but not impossible to do if you put in some effort. I can’t “splurge” on ice cream any more because it makes me miserable.
By Heather on Oct 3, 2006
I used to just not care about how many calories were in what I ate. I’d eat donuts and drink ultra-sweet cappuccino every day and feel less satisfied than if I ate a bowl of cereal. I also used to be a big “boredom snacker”…I’d eat a package of cookies, a box of goldfish crackers, half a bag of pretzels, etc…while I was doing homework or watching TV. Now I eat at the table and I try to focus on just eating and not doing other things while I eat.
By Spectra on Oct 4, 2006