Robyn Priebe, RD, Green Mountain’s director of nutrition, is back with some thoughts on deprivation. It’s a subject we talk a lot about at Green Mountain and on A Weight Lifted. Sometimes it takes a while to really understand the significant impact it can have on our eating. How will giving myself permission to eat what I want help me if I already eat anything I want? This may sound like a confusing question, but it’s a something I hear often at Green Mountain. We encourage everyone to eat what they want, even those of us with type 2 diabetes, PCOS or other health issues that are affected by what we eat (and what isn’t?). When we discuss the idea of putting all foods in a “permissible” category, people often tell me, “That won’t work. I already allow myself to eat _____(fill in the blank — fast food, ice cream, whatever type of food you might not believe is consistent with healthy eating). That’s the problem. I eat it every day, or if I don’t, I binge on it.” The idea of telling these people that they should allow themselves to have the fast food or whatever seems crazy. However, I question whether they are truly giving themselves permission to eat the food, despite the fact that they may eat it daily. There’s a big difference between eating something and feeling guilty about it versus being OK with eating that same food and not dwelling on it afterwards. There are various different reasons/triggers for binge eating or compulsive eating. One very common type of binge is a deprivation-sensitive binge. What I find interesting is that deprivation can trigger a binge whether it’s actual physical deprivation of food (under-eating), deprivation due to eliminating/restricting specific foods, or perceived deprivation (thinking you should be avoiding a food or eating less) . With perceived deprivation you may actually be eating enough food, eating all types of foods, but we still have this sense of “I should be eating less” or “I shouldn’t be eating this specific food.” Changing the way we think about food often changes our relationship with food .

Original Source of Does Perceived Deprivation Cause You to Overeat?