Our Intentions About Food Matter

People who come to see me for help with their eating disorders often ask me how I eat and how I think about food. Years ago when first asked this question, I was taken aback, but I have thought quite a bit over time as to why this question is so important. Now I try to answer honestly either about what I might have eaten in any given day or how I approach food in general. As a result, I try to look into all the ways I approach food and how my experience might help guide people in recovery.

This question gets to the heart of dealing with food in our world as it is. There is no clear way to think about and approach food. We aren’t equipped to handle the endless array of food at our disposal, as I mentioned in my last post. The media noise about dieting, “healthy” food, irresistible food and weight is extremely loud while the silent whispers of a more balanced way to think about food and body are barely audible.

For the first time ever as humans, the fortunate of us expect to be able to follow hunger and fullness cues and desires to figure out a way to eat without a care of a future without plentiful food at our disposal. Even for those of us who don’t have eating disorders, eating is complicated and laden with many contradictory impulses.

Many if not most people use the messages in the media to eat based on some ambiguous sense of doing the right thing balanced with their own desires. Some people use exercise as a way to justify eating (food as “fuel”) while others focus on the kinds of food they eat (or don’t eat) either as a way to eat ethically or to focus on perceived health benefits.

We all may look for the right way to eat, but more than anything I think we are searching for a structure to help us eat regularly and in a way that feels good physically and emotionally. And more often than not, the media have an enormous impact on how much time and effort we put to our food.

I often answer the question in a few parts. During the week, my food is fairly consistent without too much variation since this way of eating needs less attention so I have more energy to focus on the weekdays. The weekends tend to be a time of more food pleasure either around foods I enjoy, being with others or cooking. The balance between routine, ensuring there is time and attention to meals even on busy days and enjoyment is a pattern that has worked for me and is often a helpful guide for many people to begin to figure out the place of food in their lives.