Eating Recovery Center In The News: Real Simple Magazine
In the September 2012 issue of Real Simple Magazine, Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Craig Johnson, PhD, FAED, CEDS is interviewed in the article, “Food and your Feelings (It’s Complicated)”. Read an excerpt from the article below, or read it in its entirety by picking up the September issue of Real Simple, which is available now.
Real Simple, September 2012
“Food and your Feelings (It’s Complicated)”
“As a child, you probably got the food-as-soother message in countless other ways, too: Remember the lollipop the doctor always handed out after a visit? The teacher who rewarded A students with ice cream?
By adulthood that association becomes ingrained in our minds, says Craig Johnson, PhD, a psychologist specializing in eating disorders and chief clinical officer of Eating Recovery Center, in Denver: ‘Children’s brains sometimes aren’t developed enough to use words to deal with complex feelings, so they may use food to self-regulate emotions.’
That’s even more likely if your parents modeled that behavior. In a 2010 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers brought together mother-preschooler pairs. They asked the moms to rate their own emotional-eating habits. Then they devised an activity during which snacks would be offered to the children. The preschoolers whose moms reported regulating their feelings with food ate more snack than the other children.”
