There are signs that indicate that your attitude towards food or certain types of food is becoming problematic and that you should change some beliefs and rules, experts say.
For most people, food is "just food", something that must be included in the schedule in order to survive and not get tired of it too much. However, for people who have an eating disorder, it often dictates all other actions.
So it can become more important than school, work and other obligations, and it can significantly harm your relationship with yourself, but also with other people.
The first step in solving the problem is to recognize the signs that something has gone wrong. Dietitians and nutrition psychologists have singled out the most common indicators that can indicate that there are problems in your attitude towards food, which you should definitely work on.
Exercise immediately after eating
If you think about exercising immediately after eating, to burn those calories, it will start a war between your mind and body around food, says psychologist Lindsay Brancato, who specializes in nutrition psychology.
It is a black and white way of thinking about food, exercise and our bodies, and it reflects some toxic beliefs. If you think about your workouts by associating them with the fact that you need to spend what you ate, think carefully about why. We need to exercise, but not to consume what we have eaten, but because we will feel better after that.
"It is not and should not be a punishment. When you exercise" for punishment ", it can become counterproductive because it triggers a stress reaction in the body every time you eat," says Brancato, adding that you can also have serious emotional implications.
The key to overcoming this problem is to take care of your balance of mind and spirit on a daily basis and to adjust your exercise to parameters other than how much you have eaten.
"Your energy level and how you feel should be the main starting points for deciding whether and how much you want to exercise," Brancato concludes.
Avoid social activities because you are worried about food
Avoiding social activities, such as dinners, birthdays, family gatherings or meetings at work for fear of food definitely indicates a problem.
If you want to control your food intake, and therefore do not spend time with family and friends, it makes no sense.
Food is an important "bridge" in our relationships with other people, and it's a shame to miss the gatherings where we gather around it, experts say.
Conscience during or after meals
Feelings of guilt while eating or shortly thereafter are an example of how food can take control of you, instead of you controlling your food choices.
It is not our fault that many foods, poor in nutrients, are produced in such a way that they are full of salt, sugar and processed fats and oils, which enhances the taste and causes addiction.
It is more than okay to enjoy food that you like, such as sweets, chips and other snacks, but if you constantly tell yourself not to, it will cause stress and guilt, which will become an additional problem.
Food rejection for no health reason
People are often on various diets and throw out some kind of food, sometimes for health reasons, and sometimes out of conviction.
So people who have celiac disease have to eliminate gluten from their diet, vegans will stop eating foods of animal origin, or we may reject some foods prepared in a certain way because we don't like them, or we don't like them in a certain combination.
It is not good to throw out food without a special reason, because you read somewhere that it is not recommended for weight control.
For example, you will often read that bread grows fat, but if you eliminate it from your diet, it can lead to you thinking only about bread at every meal and not being able to resist eating it two to three times a week.
Instead of choosing food based on the fear of extra kilograms, choose it according to the feeling you have after eating it. When you eat something well, but after that you feel tired, have cramps and indigestion, or heartburn, you should think about what you ate.
Feeling of losing control while taking certain foods
People who feel that they cannot control the intake of certain foods often suffer from some moral barriers that society has imposed around food, says dietitian Alex Trnbul.
Today, many things, including food, are judged to be "good" or "bad," which imposes a sense of guilt and shame on people as they eat, or even as they just think about eating one of their favorite foods. don’t let them enjoy that food, ”Trnbul says.
The feeling of limitation grows until you reach the point where you can no longer stand it and simply do not overeat. For people with eating disorders, this can turn into a vicious cycle of overeating.
There is only one solution to this bad habit: Include this food in your regular diet.
If you feel cravings, it means that you have overeaten, which does not lead to a healthy attitude towards these foods.
When you first decide to completely indulge in that food, you could overeat, but in time you will realize that you do not want to eat that food as often as before.
Since you are allowed to eat these foods whenever you want, the irresistible need for them will cease.
