Last week we looked at the first 3 signs of someone with a healthy relationship with food. If you missed that post you can get it here: Healthy Relationship with Food Part One

This week let’s look at two more characteristics of someone with a healthy relationship with food:

You understand and listen to your body. If you have a healthy relationship with food, you can recognize your body’s ability to speak to you about what and when it wants you to eat. You recognize your body’s signals but more importantly, you listen to those signals and respond to them. It is highly unusual for an emotional eater to be in touch with her body’s communication with her because she isn’t responding to a physiological need for food, she’s responding to an emotional need. Consequently, her body is completely out of tune with her because she’s been ignoring (maybe for years!) what her body has been trying to tell her. If you have a healthy relationship with food, you will also have a healthy relationship with your body, understanding the signals it’s giving you around what it needs to function at it’s highest level of performance.

You recognize food addictions. A person with a healthy mindset around food recognizes there may be some foods that have an addictive draw to them and so she turns away from those foods. It’s no secret in the scientific world that there are food addictions and those addictions play a role in a person’s health. Refined sugar, fatty, processed foods, and dairy are just a few of the possible addictive foods that can turn a normally healthy person into someone who will continue to devour the cookies even after the stomach feels stuffed and bloated. If you have a healthy relationship with food, you can say no to those foods because you know that a) they aren’t good for you emotionally, b) they aren’t good for you physically, and c) you don’t want to take backward steps in your health goals.

Addictive foods create what is known as “pleasure chemicals” in the brain. You’ve heard of the “runners high”, and I’m sure you’re familiar with the popularity of massage therapy. These activities are good for you and will release the pleasure chemicals. But you can get the same feelings of pleasure from eating addictive foods and that’s not good for you. If you have a healthy relationship with food, you’ll say no to those foods that give you that kind of “high” because you know it makes you overeat.

Addictive foods also have little to no nutritional value, so consequently you continue to crave them and eat way beyond full because your body is still screaming for nutrients. A person with a healthy mindset around food understands her body’s need for nutrient dense food, and she uses self-control so as not to feed her emotions using addictive and nutrient deficient foods. Instead, she develops her diet around giving her body the nutrients it needs and giving her emotions healthy ways to express themselves.

Next week we’ll finish up this series with the last two characteristics of a person with a healthy relationship with food.

Yours in radiant health,