If you’ve ever felt like food has control over you, you’re not alone. Emotional eating, food cravings and ‘food noise*’ are common struggles that so many women silently endure. Whether you find yourself reaching for snacks when you’re stressed, using food as a reward, find yourself overeating followed by feelings of guilt or have incessant thoughts about food and your next meal, I hear you.
For many, they say it comes down to willpower, a self-blame that they don’t have enough or that they didn’t try hard enough. I promise you my darling, it has nothing to do with your willpower.
The truth is, most of these patterns have absolutely NOTHING to do with the food and everything to do with what is happening inside of you. In fact 75% of over eating is caused by emotions. Emotional eating, cravings, binging or even restricting often stem from unresolved emotions, stress, limiting beliefs and the messages you received about food in childhood.
Emotional Freedom Techniques, or EFT Tapping has been clinically trialled to be a powerful tool in addressing the underlying emotional and psychological struggles tied to food and body image, whilst addressing the subconscious beliefs developed whilst growing up. This effective yet gentle tool can support you to break free from negative eating patterns whilst fostering a healthier relationship with food and your body.
How EFT Tapping Addresses The Root Cause of Emotional Eating & Food Noise
Unlike many of the restrictive diets or frightening food trends I see daily, EFT tapping targets the underlying emotional triggers that drive you to engage in an unhealthy relationship with food. Often, your relationship with food is shaped by your relationship with yourself, your emotions, what was modelled to you as a child and the beliefs you inherently developed as a result.
When we use clinical EFT tapping to approach a challenging relationship with food, it helps to tune you into specific emotional triggers and gently release them. By tapping on specific acupressure points by focussing on your emotions or body sensations, you’re effectively re-wiring your brain's response to stress, anxiety and old patterns of thinking.
Here are a few ways that clinical tapping can make a difference:
Release Patterns Learnt in Childhood
Many of you would have received messages about food and body image from your caregivers with many of these messages shaping your eating habits and ingrained beliefs. For example:
Body shaming & negative self talk
If you frequently heard comments from parents or caregivers like “I’m so fat,” “I have to be careful about what I eat” or had a parent obsessed with diet culture, you may have internalised the idea that weight is tied to worth or that food must be closely monitored to stay ‘acceptable.’
If your caregivers constantly scrutinised their weight, shape or criticised others, it may also lead you to adopting similar judgements about yourself, creating a cycle of negative self-image and a challenging relationship with food.
Food As a Reward or Comfort
If food was used to soothe or reward you- think ice-cream when you were sad or treats for good behaviour, you may now find yourself turning to food for comfort or reward, even if it doesn't entirely feel conscious. Additionally, if you had a difficult relationship with your caregiver and food was used to create connection, these associations can lead to emotional eating patterns as food can symbolise emotional support, rather than nourishment.
Pressure To Finish Your Plate
You may have been raised with the expectation to clear your plate and not waste food. Unfortunately this can interfere with learning how to recognise your body’s natural hunger and fullness cue’s, leading to guilt around leaving food behind or a difficulty with managing portion control.
Fear of Scarcity or Restriction
If your family environment was one where food wasn’t always plentiful or there was a sense of scarcity, you might have developed a fear of going hungry, leading to habits of over eating or ‘stockpiling’ food even when its not necessary.
This fear of ‘not having enough’ can create persistent anxiety around food, driving behaviours like binge eating or hiding food for later.
Associating food with shame or guilt
Hearing statements like you shouldn't eat that or foods labelled as good or bad can create an unhealthy relationship with eating where certain foods feel ‘forbidden’
These associations often lead to cravings for ‘bad food,’ creating guilt when consumed or the need to eat in secret, resulting in shame.
Although these are just a few of the common examples I see, there are a myriad of ways in which your upbringing can influence your relationship with food and your body. Clinical EFT can support you in identifying these patterns or beliefs so you can release them whilst establishing new and more supportive behaviours. Here's how:
Reduce Stress & Anxiety
Clinical EFT tapping calm’s the body’s stress response. By tapping on acupressure points along the body, a calming signal is sent to your amygdala, shifting you out of ‘fight or flight,’ (part of your sympathetic nervous system) into ‘rest and digest’ (part of your parasympathetic nervous system). This directly reduces cortisol, neutralising the urgency to reach for comfort foods and creating more peace around food choices.
Heal Negative Body Image
Clinical EFT tapping can help to shift self-critical thoughts whilst exploring where they may have developed from. As mentioned above, if you witnessed or experienced body shaming and negative self talk during your formative years, chances are its manifested into internalised beliefs about yourself. EFT Tapping helps to acknowledge these beliefs, release them and re-wire more supportive ones.
Release Guilt & Shame Around Food
Tapping addresses the guilt and shame that often comes up after emotional eating, exploring its roots and how it is trying to protect you. This allows you to let go of self-judgment and move forward with kindness.
Each woman’s relationship with food is unique, shaped by personal experiences that leave lasting imprints on the body and nervous system. Clinical EFT goes beyond traditional approaches by targeting deep rooted beliefs in a compassionate and non-judgmental way. Unlike restrictive diets or rigid mindsets, tapping offers a sustainable path toward healing. It works to gently release these imprints, providing long term relief and nurturing a renewed sense of self compassion and trust in the body.
Are you ready to give it a go?
Step-by-Step Guidance: Try This Tapping Sequence to Reduce Emotional Eating
To get a feel for the power of EFT, let’s go through a brief tapping sequence. To access the acupressure points, download the Free Intro Guide to EFT Tapping for reference.
Identify your feeling or craving
Tune into how you’re feeling right now, and rate the intensity of the feeling or craving from 0-10 on a piece of paper (0- not intense, 10- very intense)
Create a Set-Up Statement
E.g. "Even though I am craving this food (insert the food) so intensely, it feels out of my control"
"Even though I have so much guilt for eating that, what will they think of me"
Tapping on the side of the hand, repeat the set-up statement 3 times
“Even though, I am craving this chocolate so intensely, it feels out of my control, I deeply and completely accept where I am at”
Begin Tapping on the points in the EFT Tapping Guide
Eyebrow point: This craving for chocolate (insert food)
Side of the eye: I can feel this craving so intensely
Under the eye: It feels out of my control
Under the nose: This chocolate, I am craving it so bad
Chin point: I just want this chocolate
Collarbone: This craving is so intense
Side of the ribs: Just noticing how intensely I want this chocolate
After 1 round, take a breath and notice any changes in your craving or emotion. Rate the intensity again. Continue tapping through the points until you feel a noticeable reduction. As your intensity or emotions change, you can change your set-up statement accordingly.
Repeat as many times until you notice a considerable shift.
Imagine what it would feel like to have a balanced & peaceful relationship with food? You’re no longer fighting cravings, will power or food noise. Clinical EFT Tapping can help you to reach this place of food and ultimately freedom.
If you’re ready to go deeper, I invite you to book a FREE 15 minute discovery call to see how 1:1 support could be the missing piece in your healing journey.
**Food Noise: Defined as the constant mental chatter that revolves around food and eating. I most commonly witness this in clients who engage in restrictive food behaviours or rules around eating. However it can impact people for various reasons.
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