“A person who has an avid, passionate interest in food and treats eating or cooking as a fun hobby rather than just a basic way to stop hunger.” — Wikipedia
It’s complicated. Food nurtures us, providing the fuel and nutrition we need. The words nurture and nutrition have the same origin. Food is often associated with pleasant experiences and traditions including holidays, and time shared with friends and family. We go out to restaurants, invite friends in for dinner, and sometimes enjoy a pizza or ice cream late at night alone in the privacy of our home. We eat for the fuel it provides, and we eat for pleasure.
It’s also described as comfort food. For me, that’s also a problem. One of the topics I currently work on in therapy is my history of compulsive-eating and using food to numb-out or stuff my feelings. Before I used alcohol and nicotine to do that, I used food. In my recovery from substances and harming behavior, I needed to finally face my Waterloo, or more accurately, the kitchen table and the plate in front of me. Continue reading