Is Food a Reward?

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Related Episodes:

• Indulging vs. Overindulging
• Are You Using Food as an Escape?

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Full Episode Transcript:

Hi, welcome to the podcast. I’m really eager to talk to you about today’s topic because one of the reasons why you might be struggling with breaking a “bad” eating habit is because you’ve been using food as a reward, forming a really strong link between food and a certain circumstance that can be tough to break. Also, there can be some confusion about if food is a reward, and I am going to clear that up for you. I’m going to help you understand when you might be using food as a reward, why it’s not such a great thing, and how to remedy this. The remedy is really simple and so powerful in that it helps provide a much longer-lasting pleasure and motivation to continue doing the amazing things you’re doing.

Before I dive into this, doors opened to Eating Habit Overhaul today, and are open until Wednesday. If you’re a career woman and you’ve been wanting help with breaking certain eating habits that you feel are holding you back from feeling your best, then this is definitely for you. It fits easily into any busy schedule and we find and address the underlying causes of your eating habits, and then use my framework to break any “bad” eating habits and form and new eating habits you’d like. The framework makes it so simple to break even the most stubborn eating habits. If you want to get in before doors close, you can head over to katemjohnston.com/eating-habit-overhaul. You can also find the link in the show notes.

Okay, so I just want to start this topic of food as a reward by explaining how food was actually meant to be a reward back in our primitive days, for survival purposes, and now has evolved into something more than that, that ends up not serving us very well now.

Back in the very beginning, our brains were created to desire or to want to survive. They had to be created that way, otherwise our species would just die off. In order to avoid that from happening, or in order to survive as a species, our ancestors needed to seek out food and eat the food. In order to motivate our ancestors to seek out food and eat it, there had to be some sort of a “reward” after that food was obtained and eaten. They also needed to reproduce and do lots of other things to survive, but we won’t go there with this podcast.

Hence, where dopamine comes from. Dopamine is the “reward” hormone, and it spikes when we find food and also when we eat food, especially sweet, savory, or fatty food (those were the higher calorie foods back then, and of course now as well) When we get a release, or spike, or hit, it gives us a feeling of pleasure and lets us know we did something good, so to speak. It prompts us to do it again, because it feels good. That was the intention of dopamine. It actually used to be referred to as the “pleasure hormone” because humans feel that little bit of pleasure when their dopamine spikes.

Unfortunately, the pleasure only lasts a hot second and then it goes back down again. This is what makes us want to get that dopamine spike again. This was all created intentionally, because that desire to get that dopamine spike again is what provided the motivation to go back out there, hunt and gather more food, and also eat more food. This was necessary then because food was more scarce, humans often not knowing when they might have their next meal, just like all animals, right?

As we evolved as humans and started to form communities, food was used as a reward in a celebratory way. Anything from religious ceremonies to family celebrations. Therefore, the human brain just strengthened the connection between food and reward, not just from the dopamine any longer but also due to a psychological association.

Now we have foods that raise your dopamine levels really high, because they are super sweet, savory, or fatty. Even textures like crunchy can give us that little dopamine hit. So when the dopamine sort of goes unnaturally high from these foods, your brain says, “wow! I definitely want more of that!” This starts out at a really young age too, so almost ALL of us have experienced this from a very young age. This then can carry into adulthood. There have been studies on this.

Think about your lifetime. When you were a little kid and you got great grades in school, would your parents reward you with something like going out for ice cream? Or think about birthdays, you get a reward for turning a year older, right? That birthday cake. Also, you may have gotten rewarded with pizza or candy for being good, or doing something good. Not that these are bad things necessarily, it’s all part of being a kid. It’s great to have treats of course, but I just want to give examples of how food has a history of being used as a reward.

Now, sometimes when food is a reward in childhood, it doesn’t necessarily carry over to adulthood, but it certainly can. Even if it didn’t necessarily carry over from adulthood, many times due to responsibilities or challenges we have as adults, food starts being used as a reward again.

So what’s the downside of using food as a reward? You might be thinking, well, “why can’t I treat myself to a brownie for a job well done?” Of course you can do that, it’s just important to be aware that the food is being used as a reward in situations like that. That way, you can make a more intentional decision, rather than just do it automatically. Also, once you hear the downsides of using food as a reward more consistently, you’ll understand that it’s definitely to your advantage to be more intentional about what you’re using as a reward. Hopefully that makes sense.

Okay, so one of the downsides is that association that is formed between food and reward. When you’ve used food as a reward enough times, it turns into habit, and then every time you do a specific task or have an accomplishment, you look to that food as your reward. When you get that dopamine hit from that food, your brain is so much more focused on the food making you feel good, rather than the accomplishment itself. The dopamine hit from the food is not just from eating it, either. It’s also from the anticipation of it.

Remember what I mentioned before regarding our more primitive days, dopamine increased when the food was found, meaning when it was hunted or gathered. These days, food is easy to find, at least in most parts of the world, so just simply anticipating it as the reward, will give you that little boost in dopamine. So when the food and the anticipation of that food is the reward, that’s the main focus rather than that internal reward of pride, accomplishment, all those positive emotions that often occur after an accomplishment or even just a simple task being completed. Does that make sense?

Let me just give you an example. Say you want to make a habit of working out 5 days a week, so you decide to reward yourself with a piece of candy every time you finish your gym workout. Certainly, the candy is going to be a motivator to do that specific task, but it’s also likely to become a habit that may be difficult to break. The more often you follow that gym workout with the reward of candy, the more likely working out will become a habit, but along with it, the more likely eating the candy after the workout will become a habit. And as you know, habits can be difficult to break.

What can (it’s not a guarantee) happen over time is your brain wants more of that dopamine, because it feels so good, that one piece of candy may not be enough, so you may start rewarding yourself with two pieces of candy. Or, on days you really don’t want to work out because you’re tired, or you just feel like going home and watching some Netflix, you might bribe yourself with an extra piece of candy. You can see how having the food as the reward might be counterproductive if you’re trying to have better eating habits.

Now you might ask, “what if it’s not an unhealthy food that you’re using as a reward? What if it’s a healthy food?” So, the chances that you’re going to use a healthy food as a reward isn’t nearly as likely. I mean, I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t choose to reward myself with steamed broccoli after an accomplishment, big or small. But let’s just humor that for a moment. Say, you love the flavor of broccoli, it’s one of your most favorite foods in the world. It’s right up there with the freshly baked peanut butter cookies. And let’s say you use that as a reward for working out. It’s still a food that you love, so it’s going to give that little dopamine spike.

Now, it won’t spike dopamine as much as candy, because the sugar in the candy has a greater affect on dopamine, but your attention is still drawn to the fact that your reward is the food, rather than the positive emotions or the other physical rewards you might feel in your body, from working out.

You know, things like a feeling of accomplishment, love for your body, or even some physical sensations like that “exercise high” a lot of people experience after working out. Or, you may even really feel nice and relaxed after doing that task of working out. I personally feel really strong after a heavy gym workout. I feel accomplished, grateful, and relaxed, but energized when I finish a run. I feel super relaxed after a long bike ride.

So that’s the other thing about using food as a reward. Instead of the reward being the positive emotions or feelings in your body that result from doing this task that you didn’t necessarily love doing, it’s the food, or in the working out example, the candy.

Food as a reward is something outside of you, whereas the positive emotions come from within. When I say something outside of you, I mean because the food is external to you. It’s literally something outside of your body and brain, that you are putting into your body, and has an effect on your body and brain. Contrast that with something inside of you. Something inside of you generates from within. It’s a thought that leads to a feeling. It happens in your brain and you can often feel it in your body.

An example is having the thought, “I’m so proud of myself, I worked out even though I didn’t feel like it” which then leads to that positive emotion of pride, accomplishment, or even a feeling of strength. As humans, we need to experience emotions, both positive and negative. It’s just part of being a human and having a human brain. We are emotional creatures. And guess what? When you experience that positive emotion that generated from a thought rather than that pleasure from the dopamine hit that you got from the food, that positive emotion is going to drive your actions. If you feel a sense of pride after working out when you didn’t feel like it, what do you think that sense of pride will do? It’s going to be a really amazing motivator for you to work out again the next day.

Plus, it’ll be proof to your brain that you can workout even when you didn’t feel like it. You’re saying, “hey brain, you were still able to do the gym workout when you wanted to go home and watch Netflix instead.” That’s going to be huge when that situation comes up for you again, because it will.

And this can be with anything, right? Not just the gym workout. Say you have an important task for your job that you really don’t enjoy doing, but you need to do it multiple times a week. So, you decide to internally reward yourself with that positive thought and emotion, rather than externally reward yourself with a donut that a colleague so kindly brought in to share with the staff.

The benefits of this are that you don’t form that correlation between the completion of the task and the donut, and therefore not likely to develop a habit of eating a donut every time you complete that task. Also, you get to experience that positive thought leading to a positive emotion. So you might think to yourself, “Hey self, great job on giving that guy that enema, even though that’s not your favorite thing to do as a nurse. You’re really helping him out.”

That thought might lead to a positive emotion of feeling satisfaction or even just feeling care for that patient, which are going to feel so much better in the long run than that temporary dopamine hit from the donut. Also, those positive feelings or emotions are going to be great motivators to keep doing that important task when needed, and you’ll notice that they can oftentimes make the task feel a little easier over time, a little more tolerable over time.

I can tell you that just a few weeks ago when I made my whole intro and outro for this podcast, and then recorded my very first episode, figuring out all the tech stuff completely on my own, I did a weird little dance in my office chair. I whispered so only I could hear, “good job, Kate!” and did my little celebratory in-the-chair dance. I felt so good after that, excited that I would be able to connect with and help my career women on another level. I had these positive emotions for the rest of the day and I then looked forward to doing the next one. That was my reward. So much better than a piece of candy or a donut, and I do love donuts.

Now, using food to make yourself “feel better” when you’re experiencing a negative emotion is another topic, which will be for a future podcast episode.

So, how do you become more aware of if you’re using food as a reward? And if you are, how do you NOT use food as a reward?

In many cases it will be fairly obvious to you if you are using food as a reward. Most common types of food that are used as rewards are foods that are on naturally sweet meaning sweet foods other than fruits. So foods like cookies, cake, candy, or even sugary drinks like soda or sometimes even an alcoholic beverage that may or may not have a lot of sugar in it.

Also, salty or savory foods such as potato chips, crackers, pizza, and then fatty foods such as anything that is fried. Now eating these foods doesn’t mean that you’re necessarily using them as a reward, but you will find most frequently that when you are using food as a reward, it tends to be one of these types of foods, either sweet, savory or salty, or fatty.

That’s because these are the foods that historically will raise dopamine levels more so than a food like broccoli. Also, fruit commonly comes up as a food people question when it comes to sugar, because this is also a sweet food. The sugars that are in fruit however, are natural sugars and don’t raise dopamine levels nearly as high as added sugars to foods. These added sugars are typically refined sugars, which are going to raise your dopamine levels to a much higher degree. Meaning, you will have more of an association of that food being the reward.

You’ll also be more likely to make a habit of that food being a reward for that certain task or job well done, because of that sequence of events, meaning do the thing, eat the food. Also, you’ll be getting that very temporary external pleasure from the food, rather than the longer-lasting internal pleasure from the positive thoughts and feelings after the task or accomplishment itself.

If it’s not quite as obvious to you if you’re using food as a reward, then think about the times that you might be eating sweet, salty, or fatty foods. Just get really curious and ask yourself if you notice a pattern of eating any of these foods after you do something difficult or accomplish something. And you’ll notice that I mentioned noticing a pattern, that’s because as I mentioned earlier, using food as a reward can definitely turn into a habit.

So if you suspect that you are using food as a reward, and that it has become a habit, don’t worry. Just as you were able to form that habit, you’re also able to break that habit. What you can start doing is just simply noticing each time you do that task or you accomplish that thing. This allows you to become a pro at the awareness part of it. Then, really focus on mentally congratulating yourself or mentally telling yourself something really positive about what you just did, and then noticed the positive feeling or feelings that result from this. Really just take a moment to notice and enjoy that.

You will most likely find the reward of noticing these positive thoughts and feelings much more enjoyable than that sweet, salty, or fatty food. Now, certainly you should still be able to enjoy those foods, but when you do want to enjoy them in the future, enjoy them as just food, not as a reward. Be sure to enjoy the internal reward of that positive feeling or feelings, which will most likely be much longer lasting than any sort of pleasure from food.

When you start simply practicing the awareness of if you’re using food as a reward, and then practicing just sitting with a positive thought about your accomplishment, no matter how tiny it may seem, then allowing yourself to experience that positive feeling and not just move onto the next thing, you will get into the habit of this being your reward, and this will be such a huge motivator to keep doing that task and accomplishing all of those wonderful things.

Then, you can have a healthier relationship with food, because you’ll see food as more of something for fuel and nourishment for your body, so that it can do all of those wonderful things.

When I started practicing that awareness and also paying attention to that more internal reward of the positive thoughts and feelings, I felt like certain foods I was using as reward were loosening their grip on me. I no longer needed them as a reward. Now, I just see them as a food that I can either decide to eat or decide not to eat, and that’s it.

That’s what freedom from certain eating habits are all about, my friend. Giving yourself that freedom, so that you, your thoughts, feelings, actions, and results aren’t tied to your eating habits.

That’s what I have for you today on the topic “is food a reward?”. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to Eating Habits for Life, so you get updated as new episodes come out. Also, I’d love to help you break those bad eating habits that aren’t serving you, so head over to katemjohnston.com/eating-habit-overhaul and we’ll get started. Take care and I’ll talk with you soon.