Leah is dreading the upcoming holidays because she knows that she’ll feel pressure to eat foods that scare her. Leah’s family celebrates Christmas and Hanukkah, meaning that December will bring a whole lot of fried foods, carby dishes and desserts to the holiday table. Leah wants to be able to eat these foods, but she’s terrified that by eating them, she’ll lose all sense of control and gain weight. She worries that once she starts listening to her cravings, she won’t be able to stop. She worries that she will continue to feel uneasy in her body, especially after years of comments and shame around previous weight changes.
Do you relate to any of Leah’s fears and concerns? Know that you’re not alone and this is a very common experience. Let’s explore why someone might develop fears around food and how they can start to navigate them.
What are fear foods?
Fear foods are foods that invoke differing levels of anxiety in the thought or act of eating them. Engaging with these foods often feels uncomfortable, unsafe and/or scary, so someone may stay away from them to prevent themselves from feeling overwhelmed. This can lead to varying forms of restrictive eating. For Leah, many of the foods at her holiday table invoke such intense levels of discomfort that she prefers to avoid them altogether.
In some cases, avoidance of a fear food may lead to overconsumption when someone finally allows themselves to eat the food. This is often described as a “loss of control” with a certain food. The reactions someone might have to food are extremely personal and can develop for a variety of reasons.
How can fears of food develop?
It is quite common to develop fear foods, though is it normal? No. Given that our society is riddled with diet/wellness culture messaging, one might learn that certain foods are “good” or “healthy” and everything else is “bad” or “unhealthy.” Diet and wellness culture can also lead one to think that consuming foods that are high in sugar, fat, salt, additives, carbs, etc, can be harmful to overall health, which can explain why common fear foods fall into these categories.
Oftentimes, fear around food is fuelled by misinformation or exaggerations of findings in health research, and it doesn’t help that when this misinformation is labeled “fact”, shame and guilt can emerge. While not all foods provide the same nutrition to the body, nutrition and health are very complex and layered and it’s difficult to blame one category or one type of food. Avoidance of specific foods can also lead to increased anxiety, depression, isolation and preoccupation. All of these things can also impact someone’s health status.
In Leah’s case, she grew up loving holiday meals, enjoying all of the foods at the table. As she approached her teenage years, she started gaining weight (as what’s normal for children as they approach puberty), and her family would start commenting about her body and how she should monitor her portions of latkes, donuts and Christmas cookies. Leah started to feel shame and anxiety around these foods and began associating them with her weight.
It should be mentioned that there are cases where fear foods can be unrelated to diet culture and its misinformation. In the case of Avoidant-Restrictive Intake Disorder (ARFID) for example, fear foods can exist for sensory reasons or because of a developed fear of illness, choking or other adverse reaction. Regardless of the reasons why someone might develop fear foods, let’s explore some ways they can navigate them and start to face their fears.
Steps for facing fear foods
Create a ranking list of fear foods
Leah starts by making a list from small to medium to large in relation to the anxiety different foods make her feel, then ranks them from 0-100 to identify their order in the lists. She identifies that latkes are a 98/100 and on her “large” list, and gingerbread cookies are a 65/100 and on her “medium” list.
Introduce fear foods
Next, Leah begins slowly incorporating her fear foods into her diet. She starts by getting comfortable with regularly incorporating foods on her small list, (like a chicken salad, a 5/100) and slowly introducing more anxiety-inducing foods (like a tuna sandwich, a 15/100). With these regular exposures, Leah starts to gain confidence, and after time, moves on to foods on the medium and large lists. She plans to increase these exposures gradually so that at the holiday dinners, she will feel comfortable at least sampling her fear foods with the rest of her meal.
List your « why »
As what can commonly happen, Leah experiences a variety of thoughts and emotions that make her feel uneasy around her exposures. She develops affirmations and her reasons to continue, so that in moments where her thoughts try to convince her to stop her progress, she is reminded of why and how moving forward aligns with her values. For Leah, she repeats, “My brain is simply trying to protect me – it doesn’t know that this food is actually safe, but I can remind myself that it is.” She tells herself that she wants to feel free in her food choices and to feel comfortable with eating around others without restrictions.
Find support and ways to self-soothe
There’s strength in numbers, so Leah reaches out to her brother and her best friend for support around her exposures. Leah finds that by including her support system, she gains confidence in herself to push through. She also starts breathing exercises for soothing her emotions when they run high or when her brain tries to convince her to stop her progress.
Try, try again
Facing and navigating fear foods is not an easy feat and it can take a lot of time to even start to become comfortable around them. By continuing with her exposures despite the emotional discomfort she feels, Leah starts to slowly see progress and reduce her anxiety around her fear foods for the holidays. And this makes sense – consistently exposing oneself to fear foods can help decrease disordered rituals, decrease anxiety around the food(s), and weaken the fear between the food(s) and feared outcome (like weight gain or social rejection) (1), which can help progress feel more sustainable. So if you’re feeling anything like Leah was, why not take a first step toward facing your fear food(s)?
Conclusion
Eating is not always simple, and when some foods feel scary and overwhelming, it doesn’t make anything any easier. If you identify with any of Leah’s experiences and are looking for support for navigating any fear foods this holiday season (or any time really), the Registered Dietitians at Sööma would be happy to help. Whether you’re just starting off or are looking for extra support, feel free to contact us at (514) 437-4260 or e-mail us at info@sooma.ca.
By: Justine Chriqui, Registered Dietitian
Sööma est une entreprise bilingue qui fonctionne en anglais et en français. Nous fournissons des articles de blogue, des recettes et des articles de diverses sources qui sont parfois écrits en anglais et parfois en français. Si vous vous sentez incapable d’accéder à un article ou à un sujet spécifique en raison d’une barrière linguistique, veuillez nous contacter à info@sooma.ca et nous serons heureux de traduire le contenu pour vous.
Sööma is a bilingual company that operates in both English and in French. We will provide blog posts, recipes and articles from various sources that are sometimes written in English and sometimes in French. If you feel unable to access a specific article or topic due to a language barrier, please reach out to us at info@sooma.ca and we will be happy to translate the content for you.
References
Butler, R. M., & Heimberg, R. G. (2020). Exposure therapy for eating disorders: A systematic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 78, 101851. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.CPR.2020.101851
