Facing Your Fear Foods: What They Are and How to Overcome Them
Although Halloween is the season of spooks and scares, it’s necessary to talk about a real fear that many people with eating disorders grapple with every day: the fear of certain foods, also known as fear foods. These perceived ‘off-limits’ foods can haunt those struggling, making recovery much harder. So, it’s time to shed some light on fear foods and share advice on overcoming them.
By: Alexandra Carter
What are Fear Foods?
Restricting, limiting, or highly regulating specific foods is typical behavior for someone struggling with an eating disorder. The term “fear food” or “trigger food” describes foods that elicit that intense anxiety and distress. Fear foods often cause shame, guilt, and fear when a person with an eating disorder eats, encounters, or even considers them.
Why do People Fear Food?
At the heart of many eating disorders is the need for control and bodily change. Those struggling often feel like their body is a problem to be fixed. These feelings often manifest through avoidance and restriction of foods, especially those perceived as “bad” or “unhealthy.” Thus, a person develops a real sense of fear because of the threat these foods cause to that need for control over one’s body.
Dismantling and challenging these fears to cultivate a neutral relationship with food is a huge part of eating disorder recovery. It often requires expert mental health and specialized support. If you or someone you love is struggling with an eating disorder, it is vital to seek support.
If you are unsure how to tackle these fears, here are three ways to get started.
One more thing...
Before you can reincorporate fear foods into your daily life, you must ensure you are regularly feeding yourself. Eating consistently and adequately is the priority for eating disorder recovery. Exposing yourself to fear foods that may be stressful, so you must be nourished enough to undertake this aspect of healing. So, first and foremost, eat consistently.
Now, here are three ways to start overcoming fear foods.
Get Support
Reintroducing fear foods to someone struggling with an eating disorder requires mental health and nutrition support. It involves a process of exposure and relearning that is best facilitated by a professional. Like at BALANCE, there are many options for support and guidance. No matter what your preference is, getting support is imperative to the healing process.
Make a List
It may sound overly simple, but making a list of the foods you fear can be helpful. Not only does it help you better understand your situation, but it also allows the fears to exist outside of yourself. Seeing your fears outside your head can help you begin to process them.
Plan Exposures and Keep Records
It can be overwhelming to allow all foods suddenly. So, take it slow and be intentional. Make a plan for how you will engage with your fear foods, and take notes. Instead of judging yourself for your feelings around these foods, get curious. See what you can learn and be patient with yourself.
Challenging fear foods can be one of the most intimidating and stressful parts of recovering from an eating disorder. Although incredibly difficult to navigate on your own, having a trustworthy support team can make all the difference.
At BALANCE eating disorder treatment center™, our compassionate, highly skilled team of clinicians is trained in diagnosing and treating the spectrum of eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, compulsive overeating, and other disordered eating and body image issues.
Join BALANCE Founder & CEO Melainie Rogers (she/her) for a FREE webinar, Do You Have Food Rules? Fear Foods 101, on Thursday, October 27th, at 12:00 pm EST, to gain clarity on what ‘fear foods’ are and how to face your fears for the freedom you deserve. In this webinar, you will learn how ‘fear foods’ might be standing in your way, understand common food rules and where they come from, identify diet culture and its influence on how we relate to food, help shed some light on how to develop a positive relationship with food, and more! Click here to register for the webinar.
This post was written by Intuitive Eating | HAES Content Creator, Alexandra Carter (she/her).
Alexandra Carter is a professional actor, turned certified Intuitive Eating Counselor and Health and Wellbeing Coach, turned Content Creator. After moving to NYC for her undergraduate degree in Musical Theater, Alexandra spent 10 years working all over the world as an actor/singer/dancer. Through her own healing journey, Alexandra found her way to the anti-diet space and went on to gain coaching and counseling certifications, in addition to starting her own coaching business. It was there she fell in love with content creation as a way of sharing ideas, genuinely connecting with people, and affecting powerful change. Alexandra is thrilled to be on the team at BALANCE, combining all her skills and passions to foster authentic healing.