I feel the frustration from women as they struggle to understand the meaning behind disordered food behaviors. “Why can’t I just stop?” is a weighted question commonly expressed during my nutrition sessions.
Contrary to the teachings of diet culture—it is not the fault of the body, but rather the conditioning of the mind that drives our food choices. Eating patterns manifest as a reflection of thought loops below the surface. The restrict-binge cycle has nothing to do with a body being “broken,” but everything to do with deeply held beliefs about your body and your food.
Healing becomes possible when a woman brings awareness to her food patterns and reprograms her limiting beliefs to transform behaviors at the table. Neuroscience now reveals how to target eating disordered thought loops and build new neural connections in the brain to create lasting food freedom.
Anatomy of the Brain
Let’s begin by taking a look at the basic structure of the brain.
It is divided into two hemispheres, each of which is associated with certain functions:
- Left hemisphere: denotation, logic, analysis, science/mathematics, rational thought
- Right hemisphere: connotation, creativity, writing/art, emotion, humor, imagination
Within each hemisphere, there are billions of neurons that use electricity to communicate with one another through neural pathways. The combination of all of this electrical activity in the brain is known as a “brain wave.” Our states of being are directly connected to the ever-changing electrical, chemical and structural environment of the brain.
As we participate in new activities or learn new information, we train our brains to create new neural pathways. Repetition strengthens the pathways until the thought or behavior becomes our new normal.
Neuroimaging studies now reveal another way to produce new neural pathways and “re-wire” the brain: through the experience of insight. On a neurological level, insight is registered as a sudden burst of electrical activity in the right hemisphere of the brain. Insight, experienced as a “Eureka!” moment, emerges when the brain makes a connection between two seemingly unrelated topics.
Left Brain: Eating Disordered Thoughts
How does all of this information apply to eating behaviors?
An eating disorder operates in a state of “black and white” thinking. Women struggling with disordered eating experience perseverating thought loops revolving around: label reading, meticulous portioning, calorie counting, food judgments, body checking and weighing. All of these patterns of thinking occur in the left hemisphere of the brain.
Unfortunately, living in a masculine-dominant society where logical / linear thinking outweighs feminine intuition and creativity, a disordered approach to food and body has become the social norm. Messaging from diet culture reinforces a woman’s already restrictive and obsessive food focus, keeping her stuck in the neural pathways of the left hemisphere.
In order to develop new patterns of thinking, a woman needs to shift from using her left brain to instead using her right. An experience of insight is needed for a woman to create new neural pathways that can support a change in her behavior with food. We now understand from neuroimaging studies that insight is experienced in the right brain, which is stimulated through creativity and imagination.
Right Brain: Food as Metaphor
“Discovering the deeper meaning of our hunger means learning the language of metaphor. Through the use of metaphor we can begin to see how our most feared or favorite binge foods speak to us and for us. When we are physically hungry and crave a food, there is no metaphor present. However, when we are physically hungry and we deny ourselves food or when we are not physically hungry and we crave a food, we enter the world of metaphor and symbolism.” – Anita Johnston, Ph.D. Author, Eating in the Light of the Moon
The use of metaphor, as beautifully outlined in Dr. Anita Johnston’s work, is a powerful tool to move a woman from the left to the right hemisphere of her brain. Metaphor, the ancient language of story, poetry and song, is used to identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Images in metaphor transform subconscious material to conscious awareness. When applied to eating behaviors, it helps a woman uncover the deeper meaning behind her food choices.
The following metaphors are examples based on Eating in the Light of the Moon:
- Rigid food rules and restricted intake are connected with a woman’s restriction of her emotional expression and intimacy with others.
- Chocolate and dessert cravings are connected with a woman’s longing for sweetness, sensuality and self-love.
- Patterns of binge eating are connected with a sense of “not enough” in other areas of a woman’s life and in her very sense of self-worth.
- The binge/purge cycle is connected with a woman who takes on too much only to become overwhelmed and unable to fully digest and assimilate each experience.
Although logical thinking will miss making these connections, a woman’s patterns with food are a metaphor for her other relationships—both with herself and with her life at large. Using metaphor is a way to guide a woman to that “Eureka!” moment where she creates new neural pathways in her right brain that support recovery.
*I always work in collaboration with a clinical therapist in my practice to ensure that women have therapeutic support as emotion is unearthed during this work with metaphor.
Relaxation & Meditation
The final point worth noting is that a state of relaxation enhances the brain’s ability to experience insight. Through their imaging studies, neuroscientists observed that around 1.5 seconds prior to insight solutions, there is an increase in lower frequency alpha waves.
When does your brain produce alpha waves? During a meditative state of relaxation.
This means that relaxation is required to tap into creative thinking of the right hemisphere and allow for self-awareness.
Just as I work with clients to establish consistency in their timing of meals & snacks each day, I also encourage time for meditation and deep breathing. Not only does relaxation help to optimize digestive function, it supports a change in the way a woman conceptualizes her food behaviors.
As a daily practice, I recommend carving out time each morning upon waking for meditation (even just 5-10 minutes) + taking 3 deep, mindful breaths before the first bite at meals. Slowing the breath enhances the brain’s receptivity for insight to build new neural pathways and help a woman heal from the inside, out.
Resources
This blog post, along with my understanding of the use of metaphor in the treatment of eating disorders, is due to the incredible work of Dr. Anita Johnston, Ph.D. Her book, Eating in the Light of the Moon is one that I universally recommend for my clients.
Carl Jung’s work on using Active Imagination to bridge the conscious and subconscious mind.
Kounios, J., & Jung-Beeman, M. (2009). Aha! The cognitive neuroscience of insight. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18, 210-216.
Sandkuler S, Bhattacharya J (2008): Deconstructing Insight: EEG Correlates of Insightful Problem Solving. PLoS ONE 3(1): e1459.
Smallwood J., Schooler J., Handy, T. (2008) “Going AWOL in the Brain”, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 20 (2008):458-69.
Smeets & Kosslyn, “Hemispheric Differences in Body Image in America,” Int J Eat Disorders (2001); 29; 409-416. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11285578/