Why is food so often the focus of our feelings – especially for women?  Why can’t a plate of pasta or a slice of cake be enjoyed as a simple physiological experience? Instead it often seems like the answer to our problems – whether as poison or panacea. But is this a modern preoccupation? And as Christians, what are we to make of it? Writing on ‘The Psychology of Food’, ( Harper’s Bazaar Jan/Feb 2011), Stephen Garratt gives this explanation for our conflation of food and emotion; After leaving the safe environment of the womb, the ... Read More

In recent posts we’ve been thinking a little about the confusion of appetite (for physical food), with hunger (for emotional wants or needs).  So, let’s say I’ve had a really rotten day.  I’m in a foul mood.  Glen or a friend tries to engage me in conversation, to find out what’s wrong.  But I don’t want to talk. I’m emotionally constipated – there’s a whole barrage of competing feelings coursing through my veins, but they’re in a big, amorphous and threatening mass. I haven’t got the energy to deal with any more and ... Read More

So… we’ve been thinking a bit about binge eating. You might not term it an eating disorder as such, much less admit it to others – but there’s a problem. There’s something in there – in you – that won’t be silenced. And you don’t have a name for it. But it’s big and dark and most of all, it’s Hungry. Starving. No amount of cookie dough will satisfy it completely. But it quietens the growls, at least for a bit. You know it’s not ‘healthy’. But here’s the ... Read More

Continuing on from yesterday’s post .. What is it that makes us binge-eat? It’s a practice we rarely discuss and yet it affects one in fifty of us. I wonder if, as a culture, we embody a kind of eating disorder -  an ambivalence towards consumption which drives us to new levels of excess, followed by restraint. But why? To begin with, let’s look at some of the traditional ‘risk factors’ for binge-eating. These are similar for those with any eating disorder and may include; past criticism of body and eating ... Read More