Food Habituation Pitfalls and Somatic Signs You Need More or Less Structure with Food

Happy Satiated Saturday! 

Recently, I put out a ​post​ on social media discussing how do you know when you need more or less structure with food. It was a clear yes that you all wanted me to go into more detail on this. 

It has been a common suggestion​ when healing your relationship with food that you need to eat all foods. Food habituation refers to a psychological phenomenon where repeated exposure to a particular food, especially ones you have denied or restricted, decreases the desire to consume it. ​

Habituation occurs when the novelty or excitement associated with a food diminishes with repeated exposure, leading to a decreased preference for or interest in that food.​ This is why a practitioner might tell you to just keep eating a food you feel like you can't control yourself around because they're utilizing this theory that at some point you will experience food habituation. 

This didn't work for me on my healing journey and over the years in working with others struggling with binge eating, I haven't seen this work for them either for some very distinct reasons. 

In this episode, I talk about what food habituation is, the pitfalls of food habituation, and how to assess if you need more or less structure with your food. 

You can also read the transcript to this week’s episode ​here​: https://www.stephaniemara.com/blog/food-habituation-pitfalls

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Talk to you all next week!

With Compassion and Empathy, 
Stephanie Mara Fox