Food guilt an epidemic of our times, clinical psychologist warns

Updated

The number of people who feel guilty about their food choices is at epidemic levels, a clinical psychologist has warned.

Louise Adams, a member of the Clinical College of the Australian Psychological Society, said a "tsunami" of diets were promoted for their supposed health benefits, and people could now choose any food group and find something to feel guilty about.

"It's not like the whole world has an eating disorder but we're definitely in the grips of a food guilt epidemic," she said.

"You can't go anywhere and have a meal with anybody without somebody referring to the rules, or breaking the rules or feeling guilty."

She said diet choices had become a hot topic of conversation when friends got together to share a meal.

"There's a choice of what we can feel guilty about depending on which guru we're following," she said.

"I think there is this kind of moral superiority that comes from the very ultra-healthy lifestyles [but] gets in the way of relationships.

"Diets have always been around for 100 years or so, but there's like a bit of a tsunami of different diets happening at the moment. We had low fat and then we had high protein and now we've got low carbs."

The clinical psychologist said she advised people in her work that a range of body shapes could mean people were healthy.

People think they're just one diet away from the perfect set of rules. Psychologist Louise Adams

"We're all just feeling so confused and so guilty that we almost feel that we can't trust our own bodies or our own personal tastes any more and I think that's a real shame," she said.

Her advice focuses on making people mindful of what they eat and she does not like diets as such.

"People think they're just one diet away from the perfect set of rules," she said.

"We should be getting back to mindful eating and the stuff we're born with, before we get more and more rules."

People worry they will 'always choose bad foods'

Ms Adams said people often told her: "If I give myself permission to eat food I will choose the bad foods all the time."

But she said mindful eating was not about eating what one felt like.

"It's tuning in to your body and looking at 'How hungry am I?' and 'How full am I getting?' and 'How much satisfaction am I getting from that food?'" she said.

"When we really listen to our bodies they are telling us that we need a variety of foods.

"We need to just trust that a bit more and stop trusting all these rules because the rules tell us that we can't trust our bodies.

"Mindful eating is not about getting it 100 per cent right or 100 per cent perfect, it's just about knowing yourself and trusting your choices."

The CSIRO said there had been a doubling in the number of obese Australians in the past decade or so and more young people now were overweight.

It said obesity increased the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and bowel cancer.

Ms Adams said people could improve their health and weight by ensuring they enjoyed the food they ate.

"Eating slowly is a part of mindful eating, but it's not a rule," she said.

"It's about enjoyment, if we're eating really quickly you can miss out on how lovely food can taste.

"Learning to slow down a little and checking on satisfaction is a part of it."

Topics: diet-and-nutrition, health, mental-health, womens-health, food-and-cooking, lifestyle-and-leisure, sa, australia

First posted