Followed a link from Stonehearth Newsletters to the recent and very informative Orlando Health article (I recommend you see by clicking any picture on this page) about our powerfully strong emotional connection to food and how that affects both why we eat and our body weight.

Bottom line: our emotional connection to food is established early in life and is reinforced as we grow. We’re either rewarded or reward ourselves for doing something well or comforted when we’re hurt, tired, or upset with flavorful, and usually not so nutritionally sound, foods at times that don’t necessarily correspond with our body’s need for energy-sustaining nourishment. That emotional connection is so strong that it stays with us throughout our lives unless or until we first become aware of that connection and then use that awareness to develop strategies to change our behavior.

Regarding developing food-related behavior changing strategies, the well-spoken expert featured in the article, Dr. Diane Robinson, neuropsychologist and Program Director of Integrative Medicine at Orlando Health has these three pieces of advice:

I’ve never done a log or identified foods that affect my mood in writing, but I sure have used the third bullet, which I’ll admit freely is a lot harder to comply with the more heightened my emotional state.