let me tell you about emotional eating...

[keryx]

One of the reasons I don't watch much television is that teevee is the second worst (after, I think, magazines) medium when it comes to misrepresenting The Fat. Today I'm thinking of the stereotype that fat people are these giant emotional eaters.

Well. Duh. EVERYONE eats emotionally, because food contributes to our emotional state. That is how food works.

I'm thinking about this particularly because I am struggling to eat this week. Things keep looking and smelling good but tasting metallic or dusty or tasteless. Ever had a metal-flavored tomato? It's enough to put me off eating for another several hours. I'm generally eating once a day when I get so hungry that food starts to taste like food again. I tried forcing a more level approach, but that just made me not want to eat at all, so - I'm just going with it - eating the most delicious and nutritiously full thing I can find, once a day. Or a cheeseburger [Yes. Even though I am back to being vegetarian.], if that's all I can stomach. It's a post-trauma thing, and it will gradually go away.

My point is: that is a form of emotional eating. I am a giant fatty, and when I'm emo, I don't eat. People do all kinds of different things with food, and emotional "overeating" isn't the exclusive province of fat folk. Hmph.

Comments

[cyprinella]

I tend to only eat orange food when I'm upset. Guess who bought Kraft blue box last night even though she's horribly allergic to the cheese sauce?

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I frequently get the "bah, vegetarian & organic" thing when down - I just want fries. Potatoes make me noticeably crankier in most cases, but if I'm already unhappy they don't seem to make it worse.

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

We just watched "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" and while I liked it in terms of dumb comedies, some of the messages about The Fat were mixed. He did eat emotionally, but then, skinny people do, too. And I kind of was happy that when he tried to tell a fat woman that he "knew" she at emotionally, too, that she slugged him. :)

[auntysocial.livejournal.com]

When people talk about emotional eating I think of what emotionless eating might be like--no joy or pleasure--folks at Thanksgiving only eating because it's a biological necessity, for example.

[keryx.livejournal.com]

That's a terribly depressing thought.

[miffyness.livejournal.com]

When I'm particularly depressed, I eat less rather than more; it's part of not being able to take care of yourself or take pleasure in the things you normally would. If I was a size 10 it was a sign that things were not going well.