Your Nutritional Personality – Video with Emily Rosen

When it comes to who we are as eaters, there’s more to our eating personality than meets the eye. Indeed, each of us can have a multitude of personas with us that impact our food habits, our eating behaviors, and any unwanted eating challenges. So when you sit down to a meal, there’s a part of you that’s making choices that you may not even be aware of, and that may be driving you to eat in ways that go against your own best judgement. In this fascinating video from IPEtv, Emily Rosen, Director of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, delivers some fresh insights on the nutritional personality within us. We think you’ll make some excellent connections and discoveries!

Here is a transcript of this week’s video:

Hi, I’m Emily Rosen, Director of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating.

Today’s Topic: Your Nutritional Personality

I love exploring the connection between the biology of the body, the psychology of the eater – and how these two interweave together to create our eating behaviors as well as actual nutritional status.

Here at the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, we teach that what we eat is half the story of nutrition. The other half of the story is who we are as eaters, and what’s going on inside the mind. That’s because our thoughts, feelings and beliefs will literally and scientifically impact nutritional metabolism.

This is an idea whose time has come.
It’s a powerful nutritional distinction.

And the more knowledge each of us has in this realm, the more effective and well nourished we’ll be as both nutritional and emotional beings.

So here’s what we mean by nutritional personality:

Most of us have been taught to believe that we are this one single person called “me”. And it seems reasonable, because as far as I can tell, I am me!

But here’s the trick:

We’re not actually one single person. We’re more like a crowd.

Meaning, one of the more fascinating distinctions that certain schools of psychology make is that there are a multitude of personas that live inside of us. So in other words, there’s the part of you that might be a mother, a daughter, a sister, boss, a healer, a best friend, a party girl, a good girl, a bad girl, a lover, a bitch, an intellectual, a warrior, a victim, a rebel, and so much more.

Indeed, there are a number of psychological schools that are based in this understanding that we have a multiplicity of personalities that live in the psyche, and that in any given moment one of these personas tends to predominate.

So, when you’re visiting your parents you might tend to be in your daughter or son persona. If you’re with your friends from college you might be in your party persona.

But here’s what’s fascinating: every personality within us will have its own unique metabolic, physiologic, and biochemical parameters. This has been well demonstrated and proven in patients who have multiple personality disorder syndrome. Each separate personality will have its own blood pressure, heart rate, galvanic skin response, hormonal profile, and even symptoms or diseases.

This is a pretty stunning finding.

And, it makes perfect sense.

So here’s where this comes into your nutritional personality:

At any given meal or any given snack, there’s a particular persona inside you that’s sitting at the head of the table. The question is, when you eat, who’s eating?

Is it the rebel inside you that’s eating and saying “Hey, you only live once, I could eat whatever I want because I’m going to die anyway?”

Is it the little kid in you who might be saying “I want what I want when I want it and I don’t care about any future repercussions about the junk food I’m eating?”

Is it the victim inside you who’s sitting at the head of the table who might say “I’m unhappy, I’m miserable, life is terrible, I know I’m not supposed to eat this but I’m going to anyway because what’s the use of trying to be healthy?”

Or might it be the wise adult inside you that’s sitting at the head of the table and making wise choices, staying present, enjoying the food, and letting go of any kind of negative self talk and rising above the urge to eat something that you know won’t be supportive for the body?

Take some time, and begin to notice who’s eating when you eat. See if you can begin to identify the different personalities that might be sitting at the head of the table whenever you eat a meal. And begin to notice how often you invoke your inner wise adult – you can also call that persona your inner royalty – the part of you that’s clear, mature, dignified, and has your own best interests in mind.

We literally have the power to invoke the presence of a particular personality and bring that to the forefront when we eat.

The result could be a happier and healthier relationship with food, more empowered choices, and quite literally a more empowered metabolism.

I hope this was helpful.