What is Hedonic Eating?

Have you heard of the term "hedonic eating?"

Hedonic eating is simply eating for pleasure rather than just for nourishment and nutrition. Humans are lucky enough to be a species that can choose to eat foods simply for the joy of it, irrespective of hunger.

Yet, eating for pleasure also gets a bad rap. It's often associated with overeating, emotional eating, binge eating, shame with eating and more. We believe that the only reason we should eat is when we're hungry when we know that there are tons of other reasons why we may feel compelled to keep eating beyond fullness. Hedonic eating is often connected to eating highly palatable foods and who among us hasn't eaten dessert at a restaurant after a waiter asks you if you've "made room" for dessert and want to see the dessert menu?

Here are some other reasons we still eat the dessert even if we’re full.

🎂Your meal wasn’t particularly yummy or satisfying so you feel like you need to seek a pleasurable food even if you are not hungry for it.

🍥You were raised always having dessert as a child and it becomes part of your eating routine despite not really needing or even wanting it.

🍭You feel the need to bring closure to the end of a meal....with something sweet.

🍩You have FOMO and worry that if you don’t take advantage of it, especially if it’s something special, that it won’t come round again for a long time.

🍪You have a nagging feeling that you just want something sweet, even if just a little bit.

🍫Its brought out at an event or restaurant and you eat it simply because it's there.

Hedonic eating is intricately linked between our hunger hormones, dopamine reward centers and even the endocannabinoid circuitry and receptors in the brain.

Learning the foundations of Mindful & Intuitive eating can help you reconnect with hunger and satiety cues as well as calm and regulate the nervous system so that it's not always on high alert, stressed and looking for rewards or relief.

There are 3 ways to dip your toe in the Mindful Eating waters right now.

1.Register for my free 7-day mindful eating email course here​

2.Grab your Mindful Eating Wisdom Cards​

3.Work with me 1:1 so that you can learn and practice these tools in a hand-on way with support and gentle accountability.