The Dr. Carolyn Coker Ross Show: Binge Eating Disorder, Stress Eating, Emotional Eating, Food Addiction

In this episode, I will be speaking with London nutritionist and health coach, Marcelle Rose. The number one complaint of people with binge eating, food addiction and emotional eating is usually a digestive one.  That makes sense because the digestive track depends on receiving enough fiber and other nutrients to work well.  Also many of the binge foods or “food fixes” are foods that can cause inflammation in the gut. The gut has also been called “the gut brain” because it is so closely tied to our actual brains and problems in the gut can increase issues with depression, anxiety and more.

In this episode, you will learn:

1. What are supplements that can help soothe inflammation in the gut?
2. How to heal problems with the gut such as constipation and irritable bowel syndrome.
3. What our thoughts have to do with gut issues?
4. How emotions can influence gut function and vice versa.

Research is now showing that something called “attachment styles” may also explain why people with a history of toxic stress related to childhood trauma or to other specific childhood issues (abandonment, neglect, abrupt separation from a parent, frequent changes in caregivers, or lack of caregiver responsiveness) may have food and body image issues.  Individuals who were raised in a family where their parents invalidated their views or feelings are more likely to binge and purge or have other disordered eating behaviors.

In this episode, you will learn:

1. What are the 4 attachment styles?
2. How many people with anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder have insecure attachment styles.
3. How is perfectionism related to attachment style and to eating disorders.
4. How can insecure attachment make you more vulnerable to the social media message about dieting and the thin ideal?

Stephanie Dodier of “Going Beyond the Food” has been a guest on my podcast many times and our conversations have always been honest and cover a variety of topics.  Today, we talked about the toxicity that exists in the world of eating disorders, black and white thinking, backlash from the medical profession, what it means to really do your own trauma work and how social justice is an important part of healing our relationship with food and our bodies.

In this episode you will learn:

1. Why I call trauma work, the new “healthism”
2. How black and white thinking has caused an us vs. them mentality in the work with people with food addiction, emotional eating and binge eating.
3. Why the desperation for a thinner body continues to be paired with being happy and being healthy.

You may have dieting whiplash and just frankly have so much misinformation that you really don’t know what is good for your body and what is not. So you end up eating lots of raw carrots and celery or stick mainly to salads. While there may be kernels of truth in expert nutritional advice, nutritional confusion also contributes to unhealthy eating styles. Joyful eating is about determining what works for you and your body, and learning to eat those foods with joy and without guilt or fear.

In this podcast, you will learn:

1. What is joyful eating?
2. How can joyful eating help me with binge eating, food addiction and emotional eating?
3. What you can do to learn to eat with JOY?

Food shaming is when someone criticizes or judges what another person is eating.  Food shaming can be intentional but even with unintentional, can lead to guilt, shame and embarrassment.  Constant examination of what you are eating or what someone else is eating are all part of the diet mentality and diet culture.  Diet culture endorses the importance of staying thin which then leads to the compulsion to feel you have to watch every calorie that goes into your mouth and eat foods that fit into diet culture where it’s all about the calories

In this podcast you will learn:

1. How food shaming can make your food addiction, binge eating and emotional eating worse.
2. Why food shaming is part of the “arousal cycle” of those with food addiction.
3. What you can do to reduce food shaming from others and from yourself.

Grief following the death of a loved one is well studied and understood.  Researchers have documented an initial period of numbness, followed by sadness or depression and then reorganization and recovery. Grief in this case is used to describe how we react to loss - physically, emotionally, behaviorally and cognitively.  It is not uncommon when we experience a loss that we default to old behaviors such as binge eating, obsessing about food and emotional eating.  The emotions associated with grief can feel overwhelming and we may reach for the comfort of our old friend – food.

In this podcast you will learn:

1. Why is there no time limit on grief?
2. What are “normal” responses to grief?
3. What role does food play in the grieving process?

What is trauma? Well, in the past, most people would say, "Trauma is severe abuse or neglect." But our more modern definition of trauma is that trauma is anything that causes you to lose an essential part of yourself – a sense of security or safety, peace or love.  Over 2/3 of children under age 16 reported at least 1 traumatic event by age 16.  What is important to understand is that trauma is common in individuals with substance use disorders and eating disorders.  In fact, a history of trauma can increase your risk for attention deficit disorder, depression, anxiety as well as many medical issues including diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer.  Recognizing that you or a family member has experienced childhood trauma can help you understand why you’ve had trouble dealing with food and body image issues such as food addiction, binge eating and emotional eating.

In this episode, you will learn:

1. What are examples of childhood trauma?
2. How does childhood trauma lead to binge eating, food addiction or emotional eating?
3. What can family members do to help heal childhood trauma?

In the podcast, I interview friend and colleague, Julie Duffy Dillon who is a specialist in Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS).  We discuss the importance of addressing TRUE determinants of health – what makes us healthy and how weight loss does not have to be part of that equation.  We also discuss treatment of PCOS including use of supplements and talk about weight stigma.

In this podcast, you will learn:

1. What is PCOS?
2. How does having binge eating, food addiction or emotional eating affect PCOS?
3. What is weight inclusive medical care and how can I get it?

We spend about a third of our adult lives in the workplace.  Work can improve mental health for some individuals – providing them with a sense of meaning and purpose and offering valuable social connections.  However, for individuals with binge eating disorder, food addiction or emotional eating, work can also be a source of stress and stigma that can make their eating disorder worse or can lead to relapse.

In this podcast, you will learn:

1. How the workplace can be a trigger for people with eating disorders.
2. How having an eating disorder can make workplace stress worse.
3. What are 3 actions you can take so reduce relapse or triggers in the workplace.

My guest on the podcast today is Ali Shapiro – the creator of Truce with Food® and the Truce Coaching Framework Certification, host of the top-ranked podcast Insatiable, a holistic nutritionist, integrated health coach and rebel with a serious cause.  My interview with Ali covers a wide range of topics including how the body positivity movement has been co-opted, how her struggle with childhood cancer helped her explore her relationship with her body and more!

In this podcast you will learn:

1. What it means to have a truce with your body.
2. What is self-trust and how does it help heal from eating disorders like food addiction, binge eating and emotional eating?
3. What role does experimentation play in healing your food and body image issues?