Do Dietary Parameters Trigger Binge Eating?

The truth is, you can put parameters on your diet without necessarily triggering binge eating.

Putting parameters on your diet, say by going vegan, vegetarian, or gluten-free, does not inherently trigger binge eating.

Many people in the food addiction recovery world believe that you cannot leave any foods out of your diet and heal from compulsive eating.

They believe that the limitation in and of itself is the cause of binge eating, and that if we stop trying to limit our foods, we will stop binge eating.

But the truth is, overeating is caused by denied emotions and faulty belief systems, not by any particular way of eating.

Feelings of restriction, deprivation, and missing out are all subjective. They are relative to our feelings and our belief systems, and they can change as we work through those feelings and belief systems.

Some people feel restricted by eating vegan, many people do not feel any restriction at all by eating that way. Some people would want to binge if they considered limiting their refined sugar intake, others don't.

Often the boomerang effect of wanting to overeat is due to emotions arising in the absence of that food, because we previously relied on that food to help us suppress something.

For example, perhaps sugar helped us suppress a feeling of being unloved. Perhaps eating animal products quelled our anxiety and fear because animal products are heavier than plant-based foods.

If we place parameters on our diet without dealing with the underlying reasons why we were reliant on them before, and why we feel triggered not having them, then we will likely go the other way and binge.

But this is not due to the parameter, this is due to the unresolved feelings and beliefs not being dealt with.

Motivation is everything. We can be motivated towards dietary parameters through fear, body image issues, and self-punishment, or we can be motivated towards those same dietary parameters through love, ethics, and self-care.

Don't be afraid of considering parameters if you are healing food addiction. Instead, place your primary focus on the emotions and beliefs that you have around food and body image, and you will be led in the right direction.

Photo by Daniel J Schwarz via Unsplash