I Can’t Stop Thinking About Food - HELP!

Apr 6

If you have ever wondered how to stop thinking about food so much, I’d bet that a lot of the advice you’ve received set you up to think about it *more*.

So can we clear a few things up? If you feel like you spend a lot of time obsessing about food…

It does not mean you are addicted to food.
It does not mean you need strategies to avoid caving.
It does not mean you need to learn to overcome the thoughts.
It does not mean that you need to run a tight ship or else you will never stop eating.

I would argue that all of these perceptions keep us trapped and worsen the problem.

Here’s what I’d be willing to bet you thinking about food all the time *does* mean:

Your body is sensing deprivation - physical or psychological, or both.

If you’re sitting there thinking, “Jacklyn if only you knew… not eating enough is definitely not my problem”. I hear you. For many people it’s hard to even entertain the thought that we could be experiencing deprivation.

And at the end of the day I don’t know exactly how much you need to eat. Only your body truly knows that.

What I do know is that the definition of deprivation most of us have been exposed to is very narrow. So let’s take a moment to look at a few different ways deprivation can show up, because they can all contribute to obsessing about food.

Types of Deprivation
(with very technical names invented by me)

The Not-Enough-Food Deprivation

When you hear deprivation, this is likely what comes to mind. We know from research that not eating enough calories increases how much attention and excitement our brains get from eating, knowing we’re about to eat, as well as looking at pictures of delicious food (source 1).
A person could be in this situation for many reasons: being on a diet, not having access to enough food, a surgery, depression, and many others.
The-Lack-of-Consistency Deprivation

A common sentiment amongst my clients is that they must be eating enough since they regularly eat past comfortable fullness. How could I not be eating enough when last night I felt sick to my stomach after a binge?
We can make the comparison to a car’s need for gas. A car doesn’t care if there’s a sufficient supply of gas for the week or month, it cares if there’s enough gas to be able to drive right now. The same can be said for our bodies. Imagine that last night you ate a lot of food; a quantity you perceive to be enough for a whole day. Our bodies can absolutely still experience that day as a scarcity, thinking “why wasn’t food available all the other hours of the day?”
The But-I’m-Not-Hungry Deprivation

When we think about hunger, many of us think about a growling belly. So if you’re not ignoring rumblings, it can be easy to deduce that you must be eating enough.

For starters, there are many ways you can experience hunger aside from stomach pangs:
- noticing your concentration wane
- feeling a bit less patient and regulated
- thinking about food more
- a dip in energy level
For some, stomach pangs are not a sign of hunger that’s really ever felt.
Secondly, many factors can turn the volume of our hunger signals very low and hard to be in touch with. Things like medications, mental health conditions, as well as a history of deprivation from food insecurity or an eating disorder are all things that can make hunger signals go offline.
So while I am a firm believer in honouring our hunger, for many individuals it’s not as simple as “just eat when you’re hungry”.
The I-Don’t-Look-Deprived Deprivation

Sometimes people feel there is no way they could be experiencing deprivation based on their body size. We are fed the idea that undernourishment has a “look”. To which I say: no one can deduce anything about you or your lifestyle based on your body.
Someone experiencing starvation can live in any body. Someone experiencing bingeing can live in any body. Someone experiencing purging can live in any body.
In one study of 1747 college students with eating disorder symptoms, only 2% were classified as “underweight” (source 2). And yet people in small bodies continue to be more likely to get diagnosed and receive treatment, which is one of a million examples of weight stigma in health care (source 3).
The I-Shouldn’t-Have-Eaten-That Deprivation

Let’s imagine someone is eating sufficient food consistently throughout the day. Yay!
But yesterday they ate some cookies, and afterward they were bombarded with thoughts like “I shouldn’t have had those. I’ll try not to have any cookies tomorrow”.
The body still interprets this as a scarcity! “Why are cookies unavailable? When will they be available again? Will other foods also become unavailable? Will I have enough to eat tomorrow?”

The link between deprivation and obsessing about food

So what do all of these types of deprivation have in common?! They all put our body into a state of stress about not having enough food available.

When our body has any reason to worry there is a shortage of food available, it employs a few strategies to protect itself (see my article about the Minnesota Starvation Experiment). One is to recruit the brain to have us think about food a lot, in hopes that we will spend more time seeking it out - and eating it.

And so you can imagine how a deprived body that is thinking about food a lot because it needs to be fed more, consistently, with less guilt reacts to experiencing even more restriction.

So how can I stop thinking about food so much?

If you’re stuck in this place, I am sending so much compassion your way. It is a really uncomfortable place to exist and can leave you wishing you had an off switch for your thoughts.

For some people, the realization that they are experiencing deprivation they weren’t consciously aware of is empowering and the first step in making changes.

For others, it comes with the difficult realization that they aren’t in a place to stop this restriction on their own. This is where support comes in.

Are you looking for dietitian support? I offer virtual nutrition counselling to adults in Ottawa and the rest of Ontario.
Learn more about my services.

This blog post is not a substitute for personal eating disorder care and is intended for educational purposes only.

Sources:

Stice, E., Burger, K., Yokum, S. (2013). Caloric deprivation increases responsivity of attention and reward brain regions to intake, anticipated intake, and images of palatable foods, NeuroImage, 67, 322-330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.11.028.
Forbush, K., Heatherton, T.F., Keel, P.K. (2006). Relationships between perfectionism and specific disordered eating behaviors. International Journal of Eating Disorders. 40(1), 37-41. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.20310
Ralph, A.F., Brennan, L., Byrne, S. et al. Management of eating disorders for people with higher weight: clinical practice guideline. J Eat Disord 10, 121 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-022-00622-w