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Food trauma — and how to beat it

Author: Susie Burrell - B.Nutr & Diet (Hons), MSc

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Your early experiences and conditioning surrounding food may impact your behaviour even today. Dietitian Susie Burrell shares ways to overcome the food trap.

There are so many variables that influence eating behaviour. We are heavily impacted by those around us, the major trends of the time, what our supermarkets and food marketers promote, and what is most familiar to us. There are also the habits that have developed as a result of early programming — the early experiences we have had with food and diets that exert a powerful influence over our relationship with food during our entire lives.

In some cases, we are conscious of these influences: for example, do you
remember being told that you ‘must’ finish everything on your plate? Then, there are the other more insidious influences that can fuel maladaptive eating patterns — without us even realising. For this reason, if weight issues have plagued you for much of your adult life, or if you remain unsure as to why you
often behave in odd ways around food, it may be time to reflect on how your early food experiences may be impacting you now, and whether they’re ultimately acting as a barrier to your health-related goals.

Understanding food trauma

While there are well-established links between childhood trauma and disordered eating patterns, food trauma is more specific. It pertains to particular experiences with food that shape our relationships with what and how we eat in an ongoing way. While food trauma may present in a similar way to disordered eating, with behaviours like bingeing and restriction, the influence of food trauma may also be more subtle.

An inability to stick to a healthy eating plan, self-sabotage, eating when not hungry, consistent overeating and rewarding with food, restrictive eating followed by bingeing and a constant preoccupation with diets, food, recipes and eating: all these may be signs that traumatic food experiences are still dominating your relationships with food today. More specifically, unusual
food beliefs and behaviours that are difficult to explain or even understand may be suggestive of food-related trauma. These include eating foods you don’t even like or enjoy, or rewarding yourself with high-calorie foods for no apparent reason.

What causes food trauma?

It may be that your grandmother shamed your body or your diet. It may be that you were teased and bullied at school. It may be that your family overtly restricted your food intake. Or, it could be that you associate certain foods with self-soothing or comfort. There is not just one cause or explanation for food-related trauma. Rather, it’s an association that has been slowly formed
emotionally and results in maladaptive food-related behaviour.

When is food trauma an issue?

While many of us will have early food experiences that impact our food-related behaviours as adults, the key difference between this and food trauma is that food trauma affects our relationship with food in a way that impacts daily life. This may be in a health context, by preventing you from achieving your health or weight-related goals, or psychological — by taking up too much cognitive time and energy. The key identifying factor is that food trauma is consciously — or unconsciously — driving certain behaviours or thoughts that are negatively impacting your life.

How do you know if it’s food trauma?

A relatively simple technique that can reveal much about our early food programming is taking some time to reflect and recall any standout food or diet related memories from your childhood. When you have some space and time, let your mind wander back to a certain age or time in your life — it may be a
family celebration, or a key memory of a person or house you lived in, or even a restaurant or meal out. Often, when we place our focus on a food or meal event of this time, different memories will emerge, and can be powerful insights into the messages that we received as children about the role of food
and eating in our lives. For example, being told to stop eating so you don’t get fat. Or being assessed in a weight-related context by a male family member. Or, maybe a close female relative was for some reason obsessed with diets and restrictive eating, programming your subconscious to form a belief that to lose weight you needed to constantly count calories and restrict intake.

COMMON FOOD TRAUMA SIGNS

- - Not being able to achieve results no matter which diet or program you follow
  - A love/hate relationship with food
  - Weight and diets were a significant part of your childhood
  - Reverting to childlike eating behaviours around family
  - Certain foods were/are actively restricted in your home.

Such insights are powerful, because when we understand the reason for thoughts and behaviour patterns, it is easier to accept them and proactively manage them. For example, in the case of eating everything on your plate, knowing this is what you are programmed to do automatically creates a mindfulness around eating what is served — so that you can consciously manage your appetite and be aware of not eating on autocue. Or, in the case of following restrictive diets, realising that this was not your own belief but rather what
you were taught at a young age can help you accept it is time to challenge that early belief.

Moving beyond food trauma

One of the first steps to moving beyond food trauma is gaining awareness of why you may have it. It‘s important to pinpoint what the origins of the trauma may be so that you are able to treat yourself with kindness and empathy as opposed to frustration, annoyance and even disgust, hate, shame and anger.
Understanding the reasons behind why we behave in the way we do is an essential element in reprogramming our tendencies. It also helps us to break the old patterns of behaviour and maintain better ones over the long term.

Signs you may need extra help

If you find you self-sabotage, have binge-eating cycles and are unable to adhere to healthy, balanced eating plans for an extended period, it may be helpful to examine some of your early food experiences and consider how they may still be holding you back from reaching your goals. This may be work you can do yourself, or with a qualified professional such as a therapist or dietitian specialising in eating issues, so you can free yourself from these entrenched habits and move forward with your commitment to a healthy lifestyle and a healthy weight.