Scary Movie: Alone with a Bag of Chips

Recently a client told me that she didn’t trust herself to have bbq potato chips in her pantry. As a child, her parents hadn’t allowed foods like chips and packaged sweets in their home. Even though her parents had their children’s best interests at heart, my client developed a pattern of bingeing on the foods she couldn’t have as a child, then depriving herself of enough food afterwards. This cycle continued for many years.

When we forbid foods, or simply don’t eat enough, our bodies’ survival instincts kick in, causing loss-of-control eating, aka binge eating, often preceded by obsessive thoughts about food. Even if we don’t experience binges, our minds are so preoccupied with wanting to eat (to stay alive!) that we can’t connect to the present moment in a meaningful way.

If you’re not sure about this, ask yourself these questions.

How did you feel the last time you went too long without eating?

Were you able to successfully accomplish the task at hand or connect to loved ones around you?

If you’re like me, the answer is a resounding NO. When I don’t eat enough or go too long without eating, my inner Angry Dog comes to life and it’s best to move out of my way. The other outcome from not eating enough is that I shrink into a quiet nobody.

Diet culture is always trying to make us small, literally, as in our size and weight, and in our own power. It sells us the idea that having a thin or uber-toned body is essential for gaining respect and being successful, but aren’t we more than our bodies?

In her book on radical self-love titled The Body Is Not an Apology, Sonya Renee Taylor writes, “I have never asked the ocean to shrink or play small,” in rebuke to a society that is always telling her to. When we are hungry and deprived of food, it’s just about impossible to focus on anything else because our inner biological cues want us to stay alive.

In her research on the parents’ feeding styles, Dr. Leann Birch learned that the more a parent restricted their children’s access to high calorie foods like chips and cookies, the more likely the child would grow up to binge on those foods and eat them even when they weren’t hungry. Conversely, when parents provide regular access to food and a variety of choices (not just “healthy” ones), the child is more likely to self-regulate and eat the foods they need in the amounts that feel good to them.

The client I mentioned earlier has begun to eat potato chips with lunch and is savoring the flavors and crunchy texture. In the past when she ate chips, she says that she ate them to a point of discomfort because she felt ashamed for eating an “unhealthy” food. Now, she just eats them and moves on with her day.