Nutri-Jyoti News article archive
April 2008 - Holistic Nutritional Systems: Emotions and Eating
Emotional eating is an ongoing issue for many of us. On a daily basis we make choices of what and how to eat on the basis of how we feel. Here's one comment from NN subscriber, Tony Mayes from Lexington, USA, about his relationship with emotional eating
The emotional eating issue is what keeps me on the path to a potential health hazard in the future. I am an extremely black and white thinker, and at times I can be wonderfully aware of all eating habits and, for the most part, conscious of what I eat. Other times, I do not care at all. I do listen to my body, however, it's just usually too late by that point.
Thank you for reminding me of these points...it helps me to find the gray in the world that I so often try to avoid.
Though we are now more aware of the effect of emotions have on our bodies and minds and how this relates to food, holistic nutritional systems have been using this knowledge of the link between emotions and food for thousands of years.
In Ayurvedic nutrition, for example, the Sanskrit word for "taste" rasa is the same as the one for "emotion", indicating a clear connection. Taste and emotion could be considered as the same but acting at different levels of our being. In his book "Prakriti" the Ayurvedic doctor, Robert Svoboda tells us that
"taste is to the body what emotion is to the mind".
So when we feel a particular emotion, it can be helpful to consider what taste might be helping to trigger it. Anxiety, for example, is linked with an excess of the astringent taste, a taste like that of the tannins in tea or wine.
Anxiety coach, Karen Field, shares her thoughts on nutrition and anxiety in a short telephone interview. Just click on the play button to listen and do let me know if you have any problems.
Phone interview with Karen Field
Emotions such as envy and jealousy are connected with an excess of the sour taste. We've all heard of the expression "sour grapes". And emotions like satisfaction and greed come from one taste, the sweet one, the difference being in the amount we consume. It is also the taste that is involved when we attempt to make up for lack of something.
Share your comments about this article or the previous one dealing with emotional eating on my blog on this topic .
Copyright © 2008 All rights reserved Janet Gomez
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