Externally Controlled Eating Behaviour

You don't eat what you want. You eat what you believe you're allowed to eat. What the current dietary rule permits, what the calorie counter approves, what the scales won't punish you for tomorrow. Or you eat what others put in front of you — emotionally as well as literally. What Mum always cooked. What your partner orders. What your colleagues choose for lunch. Your plate is a mirror, and what's on it has little to do with you.

Medically, externally controlled eating behaviour manifests on many levels: chronic dieting, rigid nutritional rules, binge eating as a reaction to deprivation, constant calorie counting, the feeling of failing at eating even though you're simply hungry. It doesn't always fall into the category of an eating disorder — but it lies on the same axis. And it does something to you that reaches far beyond food intake.