What our eating habits say about us

The type of personality, that is, a set of unique characteristics and qualities, comes to us at birth, and there is little that can change it. Another thing is individual features that are acquired in nature. And in one way or another, we definitely learn from those closest to us.

“Behind the relationship with food there is always something more, namely, how a person interacts with the world, with others, with himself,” says psychologist Tatyana Stepicheva. – It is formed in childhood, in the family in which we grow up. And it’s not so much about family traditions related to eating, but about what kind of relationships were in the family, on what values ​​and rules the family system was built.”

How Family Relationships Affect Our Eating Habits

According to the psychologist, in families where it is not customary to express one’s feelings, where there is no spiritual intimacy, where the child does not receive confirmation of love and acceptance, a person grows up experiencing constant emotional hunger. He replaces this hunger with a physical one. Such people like to eat a variety of food, not because they savor the taste of food, but because they are bored: food becomes a way to get the missing emotions.

Another example is children who are rarely praised, even if they have achievements like a gold medal. Go to bed on time, do homework well, fold things neatly – these rules have been transferred “on the table” over the years. So, food becomes a reward for a hard working day, and on the tablecloth there should always be glasses rubbed to a shine, beautiful appliances. In general, order in everything, backed up by the desire to be a superman – after all, only then can he be noticed and praised.

“For the characterization of a person, all the components of behavior are important and indicative, at least somehow connected with food, and especially with how he makes his choice,” notes Tatyana Stepicheva. – It is often difficult for an overeating person to make a decision about what he will eat. He does not really understand what he loves, what he wants, and in the store he can walk from shelf to shelf for hours.

This is because a person is used to pleasing and sacrificing his desires for the benefit of others. This behavior may also be related to the family system in which he was raised. If a child has never been asked what he wants, and the main attitude was “eat what they give, and don’t be capricious,” then he simply does not know how to hear and understand himself.”

What can you tell about a person by the way they eat?

It is impossible to determine the psychotype of a person based only on his eating behavior, the expert is sure. But to draw some conclusions, for example, about temperament is not difficult. It is enough just to watch how a person eats. “It is most obvious that a melancholic will eat thoughtfully and slowly, while a choleric will eat greedily and quickly,” says Tatyana Stepicheva. “However, even such relationships may not always be clear-cut.”

If we talk about differences in food intake by gender, then, according to the psychologist, there are none. “Hormones, like many other factors, affect the emotional background of women, but the basic patterns of eating behavior associated with character and personality traits remain unchanged,” Tatyana Stepicheva is sure.

– If a person is used to controlling everything in life in general and in nutrition in particular, if there is a lot of self-criticism and perfectionism in him, if he is prone to restrictions and divides food into “good” and “bad”, then he will be like that regardless of gender and hormonal status.”

How food can change your life

Since there is a connection between relationship with food and personality traits, does it work the other way around? For example, if we prepare for ourselves a not necessarily complicated, but pleasant dinner with candles and a beautiful tablecloth, can we thereby slightly change our sense of the world and attitude towards ourselves?

“There really is such a connection, but it is not so fundamental,” explains Tatyana Stepicheva. – This influence is most easily seen in conscious eaters. They begin to be more sensitive and meaningful to food, to bodily signals regarding nutrition: they eat more slowly, do not get distracted by foreign objects, understand their hunger and satiety, and enjoy food.

Gradually, this mindfulness moves to other areas, and life becomes more conscious. In particular, a person begins to understand what brings him joy and what does not, and in accordance with this, his life changes. It all starts small – with observing what we eat, why and how.