It’s an inexorable part of the human experience. We’re simply programmed to seek pleasure and avoid pain. I ran with that programming in a very skewed direction, and many years of emotional eating later, I found myself at a most uncomfortable weight and unable to enjoy life in a lot of ways. Sure, part of my healing has meant learning ways to seek pleasure outside of taste bud stimulation. But here’s the truth I could no longer deny: eating for pleasure is OK. It’s normal. It’s actually how food was designed. It was time to stop fighting it. One of the healthiest and most loving things we can do for ourselves is to eat foods that actually taste good. The trick is to keep it in balance IE, eating with joy and awareness vs. eating in a trance to numb unwanted feelings. Overeating isn’t the end of the world, but a sign of what’s going on with me emotionally. The second I feel the pull in that direction, I know it’s time to take a closer look. Good-tasting (and feeling) food lured me into an addictive cycle that went on for decades. But it was a state of inner turmoil that prompted this…not the food itself. I repeat, food is not the problem if you’re binge-eating. It’s your inner turmoil. And eradicating it is a process that’s different for everyone.