The Ache of Hunger

Cut, Restrict, Overindulge, Binge

Macros, Calories, Carbs, Fats, Protein

Weight loss, Weight gain, Overweight, Underweight

Food culture has shifted the perspective of how food is intended to be purposed. Rather than functioning as fuel, carbs and fats giving the body short-term and sustained energy, and protein providing structural integrity and strength, food has been the needle to placing an over-emphasis on physical appearance.

Societal beauty standards often accelerate the motivation to make changes in health, however, with a sole focus on perceived beauty, rather than proper nutrition. From glamorization of malnutrition to villainization of foods, the drive of people’s food decisions has caused society to dehumanize themselves on the largest scale. It leads enormous numbers of people to form unhealthy eating habits, such as overrestriction, which often leads to binge eating, and induces behaviors such as purging and bulimic tendencies.

Not only do societal standards and media play an impact on food decisions, but upbringing, traumatic experiences, and learning how to cope with said experiences change the view towards food. Food is often linked with momentous periods in people’s lives. Birthdays are associated with cakes, Thanksgiving is associated with elaborate turkeys and pies, New Year's with tinkling flutes and champagne bottles, and Valentine’s Day with grocery store chocolates in heart-shaped boxes. In Bengali culture, it is often a tradition to give sweets/desserts when someone earns an achievement or shares exciting news, a moment called “mishti mukh,” which translates to “sweetening of the mouth.” Sharing food has been culturally taught to be a celebratory experience, linking the attachment of food with joy, indulged when earned, directly aligning with creating a temporary burst of comfort, and therefore reinforcing the reward dopamine pathway.

When feeling stressed or triggered by a circumstance, many gravitate to foods they enjoy to spark the same comfort and joy they’ve previously felt. The physical act of overeating causes a direct activation of the parasympathetic nervous system, the overstretching of the gut, the body straining and slowing down, relaxing, heart rate slowing, thus forces a temporary form of relaxation that many are desperate to achieve. However, in the process of seeking comfort, it leads to even more discomfort and shame afterward. The guilt overpowers the need for comfort and poor self-image, regret, and the need for power cascades into overexercising, restricting again, and purging. A painful experience, yet another stressful experience may trigger this entire process to start again.

On the polar end, some may also fully divert from food, losing their appetite, disgusted with the body’s natural instinct of hunger. Nausea, weakness, fatigue, and suppression. In times of stress, the body’s fight-or-flight response is activated, leading to the prioritization of immediate survival in the presence of a threat over “non-essential” functions, such as digestion. The sheer mental fatigue leaks into physical fatigue, as the body craves rest and sleep. However, days and weeks will go by in this state, and the body is so malnourished that it eats away at itself. This chemical attachment leads to viewing food during non-momentous times in the same way and blurs the lines between what is needed for survival and when the body seeks comfort. Rather than physical survival, food has often been habituated with emotional survival or stripped of survival.

Among teaching food education in schools and families, there is an immediate need for emphasis on the importance of emotional regulation and recognizing triggers that lead to detrimental eating habits. Putting a focus on mental health and guiding families into healthier habits such as mindfulness, using common tactics to calm the nervous system, or normalizing programs such as DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) and CBT-E (Enhanced Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) that help understand what is causing the dysregulation and aid in finding self-soothing techniques will create drastic improvement in emotional regulation. Physicians should also direct more conversations about mental health and understanding a patient's family life or stress on a Likert scale in treatment decision-making. Many believe taking care of their health, whether losing/gaining weight or just being active is purely based on willpower, however there are usually underlying emotional triggers that hold so many people back. Mental blocks, fears, or emotional dysregulation can be the true driving force of people's decision-making. Having more open conversations about finding comfort and safety in other ways will truly make a difference in society's relationship with food.

Most people are not actively attempting to sabotage their health, but instead seeking comfort, safety, or stability. The real injustice is in attempts to seek comfort, most are taught to lead from a place of shame. Healing begins in understanding that hunger or overeating is not weakness, but rather a signal for what is emotionally dysregulated.