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Episode Overview
It’s soup, stew and hearty meals season. Fall is a time we gravitate towards more of those “comfort foods.” They just feel good and our relationships with food are complex. Jen, Annie and Lauren explore the science behind comfort foods, explore strategies to address emotional eating and how to handle those impulses when they arise. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing, so tune in for ways to find balance with comfort foods.
What you’ll hear in this episode
- What are comfort foods?
- What studies show about the impact of comfort foods on mood, hunger and satiety
- Family and childhood attitudes towards food and comfort and how that reinforces concepts of comfort foods
- Repetition and neural pathways
- Food as rewards and the message that sends
- How our habits impact how comfort foods affect us
- Ellyn Satter’s advice on treat snacks
- How family relationships impact emotional eating
- Foods and traditions – eating to remember
- How to interrupt emotional eating with other soothing activities
- The difference between what men and women crave for comfort food
- Combining soothing activities with food and how that can be helpful
- Smells and memory and how that relates to food and feelings
- Eating to feel vs eating to numb
- Naming feelings and processing them as an alternative to emotional eating
- Waiting to decide if you still want something
- Giving yourself permission to eat and move on with your life
Resources
- Secrets from the Eating Lab by Dr. Traci Mann
- Episode 16: Feeding Our Families – Growing Healthy Relationships With Food
- Episode 38: 3-Step Process For Teaching Children Moderation At Halloween
Transcript
Download a copy of this episode’s transcript here.
