Episode 062 – The Intuitively You Podcast

Do you feel guilty after eating? 

If you’re someone who is feeling guilty after eating, know that you’re not alone. A survey done in 2015 found that 80% of women and 70% of men in the United States experience feelings of guilt towards food. With the world we live in, diet culture running rampant, it makes sense that food guilt is something that crosses your mind. 

But food guilt might be something that crosses your mind more often than you’d like. And that’s definitely a sign to take a look at what’s going on to make you feel guilty about food. Food guilt can take up a lot of brain space, create a negative relationship with food, and ultimately impact your overall well-being. 

You deserve to have peace from this. And that’s exactly what we’re going to learn together in this post! 

What food guilt sounds like 

Here are some inner self-talk statements that might help you to distinguish if you’re experiencing food guilt: 

• “I’m so bad for eating this” 
• “I shouldn’t eat so much”
• “Ugh, that food is so unhealthy, why do I want it so badly?!” 
• “I just can’t be trusted around food” 
• “Why did I eat so much again? I need to be better!” 
• “I really need to stop eating this junk food” 
• “I need to get a grip and eat more clean” 

If you find yourself thinking these things, it might be time to pay attention to how it’s impacting your relationship with food. 

How feeling guilty after eating impacts your relationship with food

Let’s be real, having such negative thoughts about food all the time really can negatively impact your relationship with food, and your life as a whole. We eat food multiple times a day, every day. And if our food thoughts are all covered in guilt, then of course that’s not going to be the most enjoyable experience. No wonder its so common to feel off about food!  

it might be time to improve your relationship with food and tackle that food guilt. 

Why do I feel guilty after eating? 

What actual leads to feeling guilty after eating? The short answer? Negative beliefs about food. The long answer? There are many factors that go into feeling guilty about food. Let’s explore the reasons and get to the bottom of where this food guilt is coming from: 

You’ve been influenced by diet culture:

• Diet culture is all around us. Diet culture really is just the term used to describe the negative way that the media and mainstream society teach us to think about food. We’re often told we must be striving for a thin body, and in order to do that we should be eating as little as possible, or eating “clean.” I’m here to tell you that all of that is just not true, and is actually quite harmful. 

You were taught negative beliefs about food growing up:

• The way our parents or caregivers talked and interacted with food while we were growing up is a big influence on how our relationship with food may look when we become adults. 

You have rules about food:

• If you have an idea in your mind about how you “should” eat (aka. food rules), and you’re not living up to those (likely unrealistic) expectations, then it makes sense you feel guilty about that. 

Your inner food police voice is loud:

• Similar to the rules about food, that inner critic voice of yours has an idea about what eating “should” be like. It’s been years of your inner food police telling you that you’re being “bad with food”, or you “shouldn’t eat like that” it’s become almost unconscious, and makes you feel guilty when you interact with food. 

You’re hard on yourself:

• Maybe you’re just hard on yourself all around. And that critical self talk spills over into your relationship with food. Instead of speaking to yourself with self compassion, you speak to yourself about food in the tone of guilt and shame.

You view food as good vs. bad:

• If you look at food and thing good vs. bad, health vs. unhealthy, or good vs. junk, etc. then that view of food will make you feel icky when you’re eating the “bad” “unhealthy” or “junk” foods. Because of that belief you have towards those foods.

5 steps to stop feeling guilty after eating 

Now let’s dive into the 5 steps you can take to stop feeling guilty after eating. 

1. Recognize your inner food police thoughts

As we just covered, that inner food police voice can be making you feel guilty about food. You may not even realize it’s there.

For example, I was talking with a client recently and she was telling me that while her and I were talking she could notice those inner food police voices when reflecting on the experience with a “bad” food in her mind. But she wasn’t able to actually notice them real-time, in the moment.  

Starting to recognize those inner food police thoughts in the moment is the first step to setting yourself free from this guilt! 

2. Question your beliefs about food 

After catching the inner food police thoughts, I then want you to question your beliefs about food. Question them – is this really true? Who told me it’s not okay to eat past 7pm? WHY? Etc. 

Get curious about what’s going on with these beliefs, without judgment toward yourself. Digging deeper into whats underneath these negative beliefs about food will get you even closer to being able to truly let them go. Then, over time, they will lose the power they have over you. 

And if you need help actually rewiring these beliefs about food, getting the support from an intuitive eating dietitian (like myself), can be super helpful! 

Note: I do NOT believe in this above depiction of food as “good” or “bad” foods above. This is just to show the typical pattern of thinking about food that I’d love for you to break!

3. Make peace with foods you feel guilty about

If you’ve interacted with us here at The Intuitive Nutritionist, you know that we’re big on making peace with food. We’re even more passionate about making the making peace with food process non-overwhelming. Because many people, maybe yourself included, feel overwhelmed by this process. 

The make peace with food process is a whole deep process in itself, but the best way to go about this without going into too much depth is to normalize these foods for yourself.

What I want you to think about is to start taking the foods you feel guilty about off the pedestal. We often put these foods we fear up on a pedestal. And being on the pedestal is what’s causing you to have the funky feelings about that food. So let’s normalize them to get rid of that guilt!  

4. Practice self-compassion

Self compassion is absolutely key in an intuitive eating journey! Guilt often sounds like the complete opposite of self compassion. So flipping that right around, bringing in the practice of self-compassion can soften the food guilt. For example: 

• Instead of “I’m so bad for eating this”
• Try softening it, to something more like “okay, I had that food, maybe in an amount that didn’t make me feel so good, I see what happened, I’m going to reflect on it, and learn for next time I’m in that scenario. This doesn’t make me a bad person, I’m just learning how to find peace with food.” 

5. Remember that all foods fit in a healthy lifestyle 

Repeat after me: All. Foods. Fit! All foods truly fit into a healthy lifestyle. Diet culture makes us feel as though they don’t. Many foods are demonized in the society we live in. And that in itself makes us feel guilt towards those food. 

Let’s be honest, trying to cut certain foods out of your life or trying to stay away from them, probably hasn’t been working for you thus far. 

Embracing the all foods fit mentality into your life will allow you to enjoy all different kinds of food in a way that feels best to you – physically, mentally, and emotionally. Its about being empowered to make food decisions, and no longer letting the food hold the power over you.

Next steps to end food guilt

If you’re looking for some next steps to stop feeling guilty about food, I have quite a few options for you: 

• Join Embodied Food Freedom group coaching – THE program to stop binge eating and emotional overeating and actually find lasting peace with food! 
• If you’re in Ontario, check out my 1:1 nutrition counselling services for personalized support on your intuitive eating journey. 

If you’re unsure what you need, feel free to send me a DM on Instagram (@the.intuitive.nutritionist) and I’d be happy to guide you in the right direction!