Eating and the Nervous System 🧠

Hiii 🤎

I did a little post on little old Instajams that other day about the nervous system. And there’s only so much you can say on a little post. So I come along for the ride with me as I expand a little on it here.

The nervous system and our eating are intricately linked in SO MANY ways. Many of which we aren’t even aware of. But in order to understand the connection, it helps to first understand nervous system basics. I'll leave that one up to the experts, so here's a great little post outlining the basics here:

​If you’re not already following @sarahbcoaching on Instagram and you’re a little nervous system nerd like me, I highly recommend the follow.

Below I’ll be referring to freeze/immobilisation as “freeze or fawn” and social engagement as “rest & digest / safe & social”

How food & eating impacts the nervous system

• Eating is innately regulating. Makes sense right. It’s smart for our body to make something that’s essential to survival soothing and pleasurable. Did you know that chewing and sucking activates our ventral vagal complex, the one that brings us into rest & digest / safe & social? Just think of a baby with a dummy, bottle or breast.

• If we go for too long without eating, it can send us up into fight or flight. Once again, very smart of our body to activate the sympathetic nervous system to mobilise us in order to give us the oomph to go find food. Think hunter, gatherer energy. Or nowadays more like hangry or hanxious.

• Different foods and drinks can physically impact our level of regulation. It’s going to look a little different for everyone, but as some general examples:

  • Caffeine can send us further up into fight or flight

  • Making a cup of herbal tea or having chocolate can be calming for many

  • Having mints or sucking on a lollipop can be soothing

  • Some people find carbonated drinks help lift their energy

  • If a certain food gives us a sore stomach or causes us to have an allergic reaction, we will often head out to fight or flight.

How the nervous system impacts our food & eating

• Different people respond differently to being dysregulated. Here are a few of the possible combinations. Remember it can change for a single person over time AND there is no right or wrong way:

  • Fight or flight = loss of appetite, don’t want to eat. May every experience nausea when further out into fight or flight. Unfortunately not eating can make this feel worse after awhile.

  • Fight or flight = strong drive to eat to help regulate oneself (sometimes regardless of hunger).

  • Freeze or fawn = no energy to feed self or make food.

  • Freeze or fawn = eating to feel something or feel less numb

  • Freeze or fawn = will eat however someone else tells you to eat

How our thoughts about food impact the nervous system

• Our thoughts about food often impact our level of regulation and can override the physical effect from food. We’re not born with judgement about foods. To begin with, our thoughts are more neutral. Unfortunately, living in this diety culture can change that from a very young age. For example:

  • Say we find chocolate soothing. But we’ve been told chocolate is bad. So when the guilt sets in, it sends us into fight or flight. But now we feel out of control and may eat more to the point of feeling a bit too full, which makes our guilt even worse. And now we feel flat and ashamed.

  • In this example, the chocolate isn’t the issue. The eating more isn’t the issue. What is dysregulating are our thoughts about chocolate being bad and the guilt we experience when we eat it.

• This could play out in SO many different ways.

How other things impact the nervous system (and therefore our food and eating)

• There are lots of other things that impact our nervous system and therefore how we feed ourselves. These can include:

  • Sleep or lack thereof

  • Stress or strong emotions

  • Addiction

  • The menstrual cycles and hormones

  • The weather and body temperature

  • Pain (I see you endo warriors)

  • Gut symptoms

  • …etc

And here we are being told that feeding ourselves is simple, it’s just willpower. Pffff! No it ain’t. If feeding yourself is hard, understanding how your nervous system is running the show can be a super helpful piece of the puzzle.

But if there’s anything I want to leave you with is that your body is always trying to do what it feels is best for you. And even if it feels annoying or confusing or hard, know that you always make sense and your experience is ALWAYS VALID.

Nadia xx

P.S. Got thoughts? Send me an email or DM me on Instagram. I'd LOVE to hear from you.