by Deborah Crossan
My approach to disordered eating
Most people only rethink their eating habits when something forces them to: A wedding, A holiday, A visit to the GP that shines a light on our health. Until then, we tend to race through our days, weeks and years without pausing to consider how we eat.
When that moment does arrive, the changes we make are often drastic. We want results quickly and we have little patience to wait for our bodies to respond. When things don’t change as fast as we hoped, we often search online for another solution — or worse, turn inward and blame ourselves.
But our bodies rarely work on quick timelines. If you signed up for a marathon, you would give yourself months to train properly. Yet when it comes to our eating habits, we often expect meaningful change in just a few weeks. Social media can reinforce this idea, suggesting that rapid transformation is possible if we simply follow a particular diet or start eating a certain food. In reality, the way we eat is far more complex.
As dietitians, we support people not only to change what they eat, but to reflect on how and why they eat. Eating habits develop over years and are shaped by many influences — routines, emotions, environment, culture, and life circumstances. Often, we are barely aware of these forces. Lasting change rarely comes from drastic measures. It usually begins with awareness.
By experimenting with small, consistent changes and becoming more curious about our habits, we start to see more clearly what supports — and what hinders — our journey towards better health. Sustainable change takes time. But understanding how we eat is often the first step.
Emotional Eating: Understanding the Mind–Body Connection
Emotional eating refers to the tendency to use food as a way of satisfying an emotion rather than to satisfy physical hunger. It is a common experience, but it is shaped by complex interactions of psychological, environmental and social factors adding a complexity that makes it challenging to tackle.
Food can become a source of comfort, distraction or reward when various emotions arise. Unlike physical hunger emotional hunger often appears suddenly and is linked to specific cravings which overtime can develop a pattern where the same feelings are managed through eating.
This leads to an unhealthy relationship with food and challenges overall wellbeing. Recognising the role of our mindset and emotional triggers is essential to building a healthier relationship with food. It is more about awareness than judgement, building a foundation of healthier habits, improved emotional regulation and a more sustainable approach to long term self-care.
The Role of Emotions in Eating
Our emotions are stored in the mind, yet in today’s fast-paced world they often go unprocessed. Too often we chose to ignore rather than explore them. When emotions weigh heavily, the body may reflect this burden, creating sensations of heaviness or cravings. These cravings are not simply about physical hunger—they can be signals that the body is seeking attention. Ignored emotions do not disappear, they get buried only to resurface through our behaviours around food at a later stage.
External Influences
The food industry capitalises on emotional triggers, marketing products to appeal to feelings rather than health. Social media, advertising, and even shop layouts are designed to provoke reactions, often steering us away from nutritious choices and brining us towards foods higher in fat, salt and sugar (eg the delicious smell from the bakery).
Breaking the Cycle
It is possible to break the cycle by building an awareness and a better understanding of feelings- why we eat, not just what we eat. Gaining insight into common triggers that lead to emotional eating is helpful in the first instance- is it boredom, low self-esteem, stress, reward seeking or avoiding difficult feelings. You can see emotional hunger as a messenger. Ignoring it or silencing it with food prevents us from addressing the underlying need. Equally labelling foods as “good” or “bad” often leads to self-judgment and unhealthy patterns. By addressing these triggers, balance becomes possible: eating primarily for nourishment (around 80%) while allowing flexibility and enjoyment (around 20%).
The Importance of Mindset
Restricting food as punishment rarely works long-term. Without a shift in mindset, cycles of yo-yo eating or dieting will persist. Emotional eating provides only temporary relief, often requiring more food to achieve the same effect as time moves on. Below are some practical strategies to help you think about food differently.
- Pay attention to how you feel before, during, and after eating.
- Ask reflective questions: Do I want this? How do I feel? Do I enjoy it? Will this make me a healthier version of myself?
- Consider whether your body needs something other than food.
- Treat your mindset like software and recognise it can be updated.
- Recognise triggers, notice patterns, and give yourself feedback without judgment. Writing these down can help.
- Acknowledge and name emotions rather than suppressing them with food.
- Accept setbacks as a natural part of the journey.
Understanding why we eat is crucial to improving health and well-being. By cultivating awareness, compassion, and a willingness to change, we can break free from unhelpful cycles and create a balanced, sustainable relationship with food.
