Do I Have Food Rules or Sensory Sensitivities? Assess Your Intuitive Eating Journey
Let’s do a quick quiz! Let’s explore if you are still restricting food, and if it’s coming from a place of sensory needs or if there’s another layer of diet culture to unlearn.
When eating out at restaurants, I typically:
Don’t research the menu or reviews ahead of time.
Sometimes look at reviews ahead of time, or pick out my menu choice ahead of time.
Research the menu and reviews to find out about how “healthy” the food is and to make sure it fits my meal plan.
Research the menu or reviews because I worry the food will make me feel sick.
When cooking at home, I typically:
Enjoy finding new recipes and trying out new foods.
Struggle to diversify my cooking routine. I’m often stuck in a rut.
Stick to cooking and eating the same things because they are good for me, and because I want to maximize my healthy eating.
Stick to cooking and eating the same things because I like the familiarity of the tastes and textures.
Check out my worksheet here for the full questionnaire!
I often find that clients are still restricting food even after reading all the right books and listening to all the podcasts. Sometimes even after having therapy about this, restriction creeps its way back in. It’s helpful to discern what is causing the restriction- of course looking to see if there are body shaming thoughts happening, or if there is heightened anxiety leading to searching for control. And sometimes, it’s still holding on to food rules and food hierarchies. And sometimes, it’s legit sensory sensitivities.
Sensory sensitivities are things like feeling “grossed out” by certain food textures or smells, feeling nauseous at the thought of eating unfamiliar food, and feeling overwhelmed by sensory stimuli when eating. It’s often associated with neurodivergence, like autism or ADHD. It can become the eating disorder ARFID, which is when you eat in a very rigid way and with a narrow set of food that is allowed. I once had a client with ARFID who could eat a specific brand of toaster bagels, quesadillas, and McDonalds fries. And not much else. She would genuinely become nauseous or gag if she ate “the wrong piece of chicken” with an unexpected texture. ARFID is “picky eating” to the extreme.
But what can distinguish sensory sensitivities from “food rules” or “orthorexia” is the absence of food hierarchies or food moralizing. There may be a desire to eat more fruits or vegetables, but there’s a hyperfixation on “safe” foods, which are often processed. Things like chicken nuggets from McDonalds tend to always taste the same, so they tend to be safe. The same brand of yogurt in the same flavor tends to have reliable taste and texture, so it’s the only yogurt they’ll eat. The focus is on the feelings of safety and familiarly nd the avoidance of becoming sick or nauseous from food. With something more akin to orthorexia, the focus is on “clean eating” or eating the right foods with the most health benefits. The rigidity comes from a different place.
Interventions of course depend on where the restriction and rigidity is coming from! Sensory sensitivities do need to be respected, so you may focus on eating enough versus changing what you’re eating. WIth my client I mentioned earlier, I was encouraging her to go to McDonalds because that had safe food for her. This may be mind blowing to people in the wellness industry, but she needed to eat! (She also worked with a dietician that could help her explore a wider range of foods and could help ensure she was getting enough nutrients in other ways).
Check out my questionnaire here to help you assess where you’re at with food restrictions, and help discern what the cause may be. If sensory sensitivities are resonating with you, check out @Rds_for_neurodiversity for more trainings and insights. As always, reaching out to clinical professionals like dieticians and therapists can be super, super helpful to find more peace with eating, even with sensory needs.
