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Apr 9, 2024 · 3 Reasons You’re Obsessed with Food. Frequent thoughts about food are often a sign that you’re stuck in a diet mentality (even if you’re not dieting). You may have underlying food rules leftover from previous diets. Or rules and beliefs that you’ve collected from parents, friends, coworkers, or things you hear or read on social media.
- Overview
- Why you think about food
- 9 tips to stop thinking about food
- The bottom line
Food is essential to human life.
It’s not only necessary for survival but also often a central part of community celebrations and social gatherings among family and friends. So, it’s no surprise that food is something people think about often.
However, thinking about food too often can be frustrating — for example, if you’re fasting, trying to lose weight, or simply want to stop thinking about it so much.
This article explains why you might always be thinking about food and lists a few steps you can take to help yourself think of food less often.
There are a few reasons why you might often think about food.
Your brain uses two separate but interrelated pathways to regulate hunger and food intake. When one of these pathways is triggered, it’ll likely cause you to think about food. The following is a brief overview of each:
1.Homeostatic pathway: This pathway regulates your appetite and is stimulated when your body experiences a calorie deficit. That’s because your body needs calories to produce energy and maintain basic metabolic functions.
2.Hedonic pathway: This pathway may override the homeostatic pathway and cause food cravings — particularly for hyperpalatable foods — even when your body has enough energy to maintain its metabolic functions.
Understanding how food thoughts and behaviors work — and what triggers them in your body — is one way to better control them.
Since food thoughts are caused by many factors, various approaches to stopping them might work better or worse depending on the underlying cause of your own personal food thoughts.
It’s a good idea to assess your individual circumstances and try multiple solutions to figure out what works best for you.
Here are nine tips to consider when you’re trying to stop thinking about food all of the time.
Remember, often thinking about food is part of being human.
But if you find yourself thinking about food and feel unable to stop, it could simply be the homeostatic pathway in your brain letting you know that your body needs energy.
Otherwise, it could mean that another factor, like stress or a food advertisement, has caused you to think about food by triggering your brain’s hedonic pathway.
If you’re feeling bothered that you’re always thinking about food, assess your personal situation and try techniques like mindful eating, increasing your exercise levels, and staying hydrated to reduce the thoughts.
Feb 12, 2024 · 5. Let go of any labels you have for certain foods or food groups. If you have a list of "good," "healthy," or even "super" foods as well as a list of "bad," "naughty," or "unhealthy" foods, let those labels go. Instead, listen to what your body is craving, eat when you are hungry, and stop when you are full. [12]
Jan 14, 2024 · Intuitive eating is a healing food framework that encourages listening to your body’s signals of hunger, fullness, and satisfaction. It involves honoring your cravings, trusting your body’s wisdom, and rejecting the diet mentality. Intuitive eating is the opposite of dieting. Diets underfeed you.
- emily@emilyvaneck.com
- Avoid attaching shame to the thought of food. Let’s be clear: There’s nothing wrong with thinking about food. But everyone has a different relationship with food.
- Don’t exclude certain foods outright. If you’re constantly thinking about, say, ice cream, you might think the best thing to do is just not to allow yourself a simple scoop ever again.
- Listen to your body. Your bod knows. When allowing yourself to eat a small amount of something you’re really craving, you have to listen to your body. Learn to trust your body’s hunger and fullness cues instead of second-guessing yourself.
- Eat healthy snacks that fill you up. Again, depriving yourself is not the way to stop thinking about food, which is why snacks can be so essential. The key is to choose snacks that are filling, satisfying, and nutritionally dense.
Jul 20, 2023 · 5 Reasons You Can’t Stop Thinking About Food. 1. You’re labelling food as good and bad. 2. You’re not taking care of yourself enough. 3. You’re pushing back or skipping breakfast or lunch. 4. You’re on a diet – or at least trying to be ‘healthy’.
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Sep 30, 2024 · Let Those Food Rules Go. Categorizing foods into “good” and “bad” makes the “bad” ones more appealing, contributing to obsessive food thoughts about them. Strive for food neutrality, where you allow yourself to enjoy all foods without guilt. Remember, healthy eating patterns are flexible, not rigid.
