How Exactly is Your Nervous System Connected to Your Food Behaviors?

How exactly is your nervous system connected to your food behaviors?

While this is becoming more and more of a mainstream conversation, I've seen that it can still feel confusing and the connection may not feel entirely clear.

Let's do a deep dive today on this connection between your food patterns such as binge eating, restricting, habitual emotional eating, food compensatory behaviors, undereating, chronic dieting, and so forth.

First, when people talk about the nervous system, they're typically referencing the autonomic nervous system. The nervous system though has two main parts: the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. The nervous system coordinates your body's actions and sensory information by sending signals between different parts of your body. It regulates your bodily functions, enables sensation and perception, and facilitates thought and behavior.

The central nervous system consists of your brain and spinal cord while the peripheral nervous system is all of the nerves outside of the central nervous system including your somatic nervous system and autonomic nervous system. As you can see, your nervous system is far more complex with a lot more components than what is referenced on social media.

The reason why the autonomic nervous system is zoomed in on is because it consists of your:

Sympathetic Nervous System (I'll be using SNS for short): responsible for your fight or flight response

Parasympathetic Nervous System (I'll be using PNS for short): responsible for the rest and digest response

Enteric Nervous System: which manages the function of the gastrointestinal system

When the SNS is activated:

your appetite is suppressed. In a fight or flight state, your body diverts energy away from digestion to your limbs to prepare to defend itself. Initially, you may feel less of an appetite, have a hard time even wanting food, forget to eat, skip meals, and only realize how starving you are at the end of the day when you can potentially slow down a little bit where your body may start to scream please feed me something. If you stay here long enough, you will start to have increased cravings, especially for high-sugar and high-caloric foods, as your body is ensuring it has the energy to run or fight any potential danger. Your pace of eating will also speed up as it can feel like you have limited time to get the food in that you need to survive. When eating in this state, you may also notice more digestive upsets as your digestion is shut down. This is why food isn't always to blame for all digestive symptoms. What we also get to be curious about is what state you are eating in. 

When the PNS is activated:

this stimulates appetite and digestion where it is easier to hear your hunger and fullness cues, encourages the process of eating, facilitates absorption of your nutrients, and increases relaxation to be able to enjoy the eating experience. Here you may notice smoother digestion as you're eating in the rest and digest state and find it easier to eat at a slower pace as there is no internal push to speed up and move along. The other branch of the PNS, according to Polyvagal Theory, is an immobilized or collapsed state. Think of it like the brake pedal in a car. It safely slows you down but if your foot is down on the pedal you're not moving. If this part of your PNS is activated, I like to call it the flop state, this is where it is hard to get moving, get out of bed, got off the couch, and because of the decreased energy expenditure you may not have much of an appetite and have very little interest in food. Slower digestion can cause feelings of fullness faster and reduce overall food intake, which can lead to cravings for easily digestible, high-energy foods such as those high in sugar, fat, and carbohydrates.

Now, if we flip this around for a second:

the foods you also eat can activate your SNS or PNS. So there is a two-way street here where your food cravings and impulses are communicating the state of your nervous system and what you eat can also increase or decrease SNS or PNS activity.

Hyper palatable foods, for example, often contain high sugar and carbohydrates causing a quick spike in blood sugar levels. The body responds to the blood sugar spike by releasing a large amount of insulin. Rapid fluctuations in blood sugar and insulin levels can trigger the SNS as the body tries to manage these sudden changes. The body can also become stressed activating the SNS through artificial additives, low nutrient density, and high levels of sodium that are a part of hyper-palatable foods. We're still not going to label these foods as "bad." There is always a more nuanced picture here that you can be aware of what these foods might do in your body and eating them when you're enjoying time with friends and family can be an entirely different experience because you're eating more in the PNS.

Then there are certain foods that promote the PNS and relaxation, digestion, and overall rest like complex carbohydrates like whole grains and sweet potatoes that help to produce serotonin and stabilize blood sugar. Quality protein that contain tryptophan to help create serotonin and relaxation in the body. Omega 3 fatty acids that help reduce inflammation and promote brain health, supporting PNS activity. Fermented foods that support a healthy gut microbiome that positively influence the gut-brain axis, promoting PNS activation through improved digestion. Leafy greens are rich in magnesium, a mineral that supports muscle relaxation and nerve function. Fruits containing antioxidants and vitamins that reduce oxidative stress. And nuts and seeds that provide a combination of nutrients that support brain health, reduce stress, and promote relaxation, aiding in PNS activation.

Your body is guiding you toward certain foods based on what it needs to either navigate the ongoing activation of the SNS or try to trigger your PNS and what you eat can also send a signal to your nervous system to turn your SNS or PNS on or off.

This is why I believe that ALL of your food behaviors are a reflection of your nervous system state and why eating is a somatic practice.

Every time you’re in relationship with food, it will reveal if your body is feeling safe or threatened by your food cravings, hunger and satiation cues, pace of eating, and digestion.

Diets don't take this into account, intuitive eating doesn't include this, and most nutritional approaches do not discuss how what you're drawn to eating can be information from your nervous system, and what you eat can also affect your nervous system. I hope in hearing this that you can start to feel some compassion for yourself. By the time you find yourself deep into a bag of chips, a carton of ice cream, a box of pizza, your SNS has taken over and is urging you to eat certain foods that are perceived to keep you alive and get you through a threatening experience. The you that you know isn't there anymore. You won't be able to logic your way through your food urge AND there are ways to rewire this and begin to respond to yourself differently when your SNS takes over.

This is why I'm so passionate about my work Somatic Eating® to further support you in cultivating understanding and awareness of the bodily wisdom of your food impulses, finding a way of eating that facilitates long-term safety in your body, and releasing food from the sole responsibility of helping you heal a dysregulated nervous system from potential past trauma that shapes your nervous system in certain ways that will also urge you toward a way of eating to experience momentary safety. 

We will dive into this and more with some great interviews coming up in the Fall! That's right, I'm taking the next month off from putting out new podcast episodes. During that time I'll be doing new interviews to share with you, revamping the Somatic Eating® Program that will be occurring again at the end of October, working on the Somatic Eating® Coach Certification Training, and starting my PhD in Somatic Psychology. So I will have A LOT to share with you when I return.

Here are a few ways you can keep in touch and also support me and the podcast. First, make sure you're subscribed to my newsletter. While I won't be putting out new episodes until mid-September, I will still be emailing every Saturday. Join my newsletter here. Second, I put my whole heart and soul into this podcast. I know many can't potentially afford to work with me 1:1 and you still deserve to receive support on this food healing adventure. If you have a few bucks to spare, you can join Satiated+ and support the show, you can donate as little as $3.00 a month and help keep the show going. Thank you to some top contributing Satiated+ers Rachel, Valerie, Deborah, and Alli. I can't express enough how much it means to me that so many of you have felt deeply supported by the podcast and want to give back. Lastly, I will still be posting every day on social media so be sure you're following me @_stephaniemara on Instagram and come interact with me there. I personally respond to every comment and DM.

I hope you all have a regulating rest of your summer and I'll see you in the Fall!