The way we speak about food can be so emotional. We “love” certain meals, we “can’t wait” to tuck into our familiar favourites, and, in some cases, we describe the foods we enjoy as “guilty pleasures”.
Guilty pleasure foods also tend to be the ones we restrict ourselves from enjoying, often by not keeping them in our homes – and when we do eat them, we do so sparingly.
According to dieticians, though, this isn’t necessarily the best approach to some of our favourite foods and restricting in this way isn’t beneficial.
Restricting foods leads to less control, not more
Speaking to Self, Kate Sutton, an intuitive eating counsellor, explained that when you’re deprived of a certain food, or food in general, “your sensory system tends to get more aroused to make food look, smell and taste better”.
Basically the more you restrict a certain food from your diet and your kitchen, the more that you want it. It’s why when we do give ourselves the freedom to eat our “guilty” foods, we often can’t resist eating the entire thing.
A 2011 study even found that food being regularly present in the participant’s lives decreased the strength of their responses to it.
In short: having your “guilty pleasure” foods when you fancy them often is a better long-term approach than having infrequent binges of them.
How to get more comfortable with ‘guilty pleasure’ foods
Changing the habit of a lifetime can be difficult – and trying to make yourself comfortable with regularly eating foods that are linked with feelings of guilt and shame may feel like an uphill struggle at times.
But thankfully, experts have plenty of advice to guide you through it.
Kirsten Ackerman, a registered dietitian, told Forbes people should start by changing the way they speak about food. She suggested the vocabulary you use around food, like “clean”, “junk food” or “forbidden” can have a major impact on your relationship with it.
“Start paying attention to these ‘good’ and ‘bad’ food judgements that crop up in your mind throughout the day,” said Ackerman. “Building this awareness will begin to chip away at the power they hold over you.”
Psychologist Joseph Nelson recommends eating mindfully: paying attention to how the food feels in your mouth, how it makes you feel and even taking time to consider how it got to your plate.
This kind of process can help you remove the stigmas attached to food and help to repair your relationship with it.
You might also want to try giving yourself unconditional permission to eat. A peer-reviewed article on Healthline states: “Whether you overeat at lunch or have a few extra cookies for dessert, you still deserve to eat when you’re hungry or want to. Your body deserves food no matter the day or situation.”
And seek help if you need it. If this is all too much, that’s understandable and there is help available to you. Find a therapist that specialises in disordered eating to help you through.
Finally, Leah Tsui, a registered dietitian and certified intuitive eating counsellor, told Self that people shouldn’t blame themselves for any of their eating habits.
“You’re not good or bad for eating a certain food, or a certain amount of food,” she said. “Being less controlling about what you eat doesn’t mean that you’re ignoring your health, either.
“In fact, giving yourself permission to eat the foods that satisfy you is an act of self-compassion.”