4 myths about eating behavior

Food is, due to its nature as a key aspect for survival, one of the aspects of life that we soon assume as something natural, part of everyday normality. Since we were little we get used to performing a series of routines related to the act of eating, actions that are part of the time organization and how we relate to others.

However, as often happens with things we take for granted, behind this idea of ​​"what is natural" and "what is normal" hide many unfounded presuppositions that, in some cases, give rise to erroneous ways of interpreting our actions and those of others. the rest.

Eating behavior is a more complex phenomenon than most people believe, and they play an important role in it. psychosocial processes of all kinds: emotions, expectations of beauty, ability (or lack of it) to identify sensations etc. Therefore, in this article we will review several of the most widespread myths about eating behavior.

• Related article: "Food psychology: definition and applications"

Very common myths about eating behavior

These are several of the most common misconceptions regarding eating behavior.

1. We eat as a result of an organic imbalance in our body

On many occasions, the act of eating is not motivated by real hunger., even in people who have not been diagnosed with an Eating Behavior Disorder (ED). The emotional hunger, which is a phenomenon in which the person mistakes a type of malaise for hunger that really has to do with emotions, is quite common, and gives rise to many problems of overweight and malnutrition because it favors the consumption of very caloric foods, capable of "distracting" the mind for a few minutes through its flavor.

• You may be interested: "Psychology and Nutrition: the importance of emotional eating"

2. Genes only influence nutrition, not food

Many people believe that beyond the genetic factors associated with the way our bodies assimilate nutrients and vitamins from what we eat, all person has total freedom to adapt their behavior when eating, to avoid having an image far from the canons of beauty and suffering problems of Health.

But the truth is that the influence of genetic inheritance is also present, albeit in part, in our predisposition to relate in one way or another to food.

This does not mean that our genome has total control over our actions, of course, but it cannot be said that it does not influence us at all. That distinction between the organic and the psychological is ultimately a fiction: the mind and the body are not two separate realities, and therefore practically any pattern of behavior is linked to greater or lesser predispositions genetics.

Thus, for example, some people are more likely to feel satiated sooner by food, while others they experience this sensation in a delayed way, after having eaten something more than what their baby really needs. body.

• Related article: "Genetics and Behavior: Do Genes Decide How We Act?"

3. If we eat too much it is because we stop worrying about our image and health

This is another of the most widespread myths about eating behavior, and also one of the most stigmatizing against those who suffer from health problems due to being overweight. It has a lot to do with the idea that those who have more accumulated fat have given in to the sin of gluttony and/or do not have the ability to control their impulses in general, showing it as a product of vice or irresponsibility.

But in reality, as contradictory as it may seem, many people eat a lot precisely because they They obsess about their health and their weight, and that discomfort makes their mind tend to focus too much on the food. This type of tension can cause them to either engage in more binge eating to deal with the stress of self-esteem problems, or suffer the "rebound effect" of having spent several days or weeks following a very restrictive diet (and ineffective).

In addition, as we have seen so far, it is extremely simplistic to assume that the way we eat depends only on something that we can call “will” or “discipline”: there are many variables at play and some of them even complicate the task of detecting our behavioral dynamics harmful It is false that by the fact of being us, we are good at recognizing and identifying the actions we carry out and that are causing us problems; sometimes just the opposite happens, and that is why those who suffer from an eating disorder need mental health professionals to get out of that loop of distorted perception of what is happening to them.

• You may be interested: "Do you really know what self-esteem is?"

4. Eating Disorders consist of wanting to lose weight at all costs

This is one of the most widespread misunderstandings about eating disorders, and it has to do, among other things, with the prominence that for several decades has been given to two specific pathologies: anorexy and bulimia.

But the truth is that the concept of Eating Disorder is much broader than that and encompasses other kinds of problematic behavioral dynamics. For example, in binge eating disorder, the person does not take any extreme measures to try not to eat or to prevent what he has eaten from being absorbed by his body. body, and those who suffer from it tend to have overweight problems because they tend to eat without being hungry, even stopping only when they feel physically evil.

• Related article: "Keys to understand eating disorders"

Beyond the body and food

To learn more about the nature of eating behavior and eating disorders, we invite you to read the book “Eating behavior. Beyond the body and food”. Written by psychologist Marc Ruiz de Minteguía, a member of the center Psychology and Psychotherapy Miguel Ángel, this work shows that behind our way of relating to food there is much more than physiological processes and functioning organs, but also we find emotional management dynamics, discomfort management strategies, expectations of social desirability, and many other psychological elements relevant.

It is also the delivery number 28 of the collection "Library of Psychology", made up of 60 rigorous science popularization books and whose editorial directors are Pablo Fernández-Berrocal, professor of Psychology at the University of Malaga, and José Ramón Alonso, professor of Cell Biology at the Institute of Neurosciences of Castilla y Lion. It is on sale at paper press outlets in Spain, and can also be ordered online through the El País website.