By Tom Horvath, PhD
Eating is an addictive behavior (not necessarily an addictive problem) we typically engage in multiple times per day. There are many words associated with eating, including food, flavor, texture, and hunger. Improving eating often helps improve lifestyle balance and addictive problems. For this reason, I regularly discuss eating with clients. Below are some of the questions that might come up in a session.
These questions are not a scientific survey. The answers could help you understand better your relationship with eating. I numbered the questions, to support recording selected answers elsewhere. You may find that a few questions seem especially relevant to you!
- What are your favorite foods?
- How many favorite foods do you have approximately?
- Are there any commonalities to your favorite foods?
- How much effort do you make to obtain your favorite foods?
- How nutritious are your favorite foods?
- How much would you pay to eat “a great meal?”
- How far would you travel to eat that meal?
- How much would you pay to eat a “once in a lifetime meal?”
- How far would you travel to eat that meal?
- How vividly do you remember the best meal you have ever eaten?
- How often do you describe to others your great food experiences?
- To what extent do you consider yourself a “foodie” (someone highly attuned to the experience of eating interesting and delicious food)?
- To what extent do you consider yourself “addicted to food?”
- How far in advance of eating do you begin thinking about what you will eat?
- How far in advance of eating do you begin to feel hungry?
- When you think ahead to your next eating episode (which might not be a meal), how much are you typically focused on the pleasure of it vs. the relief of hunger?
- How often to you eat in bed?
- How often do you eat in someplace other than the kitchen or dining area?
- How regular or irregular are your eating times?
- What is your preference about how many times per day you eat?
- To what extent do you plan your eating, vs. eating whatever is available?
- What foods do you like that others tend not to?
- How often do you get hungry each day?
- How powerful can your hunger be?
- To what extent has hunger led you to behave in ways you were embarrassed about later?
- To what extent do you eat mindlessly, because food happens to be there?
- If you engage in not-fully-mindful eating, how enjoyable is it?
- To what extent is food set out in your dwelling or work, so that you can snack on it at any time?
- To what extent has your enjoyment of food diminished or increased over the years?
- How much do you prefer eating alone or with others?
- If you are responsible for a social event, how important is it to have tasty food for others to eat, even if the event is not at a mealtime?
- How much effort do you put into avoiding being hungry?
- To what extent will you “eat anything” to avoid being hungry?
- How high on your list of undesirable experiences is hunger?
- When you are very hungry, how pleasant are you to be around?
- Have you ever fasted for 24 hours or longer?
- How difficult was the fasting?
- How much of your income is devoted to food?
- Do you consider this amount too large or too small?
- How significant would you rank your pleasure in eating, relative to other pleasures you experience?
- How changeable is this ranking (how much would your ranking change with minor changes in outside circumstances)?
- When is last time you were hungry (unless it is right now)?
- Are there foods you would not eat, because their taste is so bad?
- What do you think of people who eat these foods?
- How hungry would you need to be, to eat foods you would not ordinarily eat?
- How true is it that food/eating is your primary pleasure?
- How much of the food in your home would you be embarrassed to show others, because the food is low in nutrition?
- When you eat, are there any emotions you typically experience?
- How often do you shop in a grocery store?
- How long does shopping take?
- How much time each day do you spend preparing food?
- How much time do you spend cleaning up (doing dishes)?
- Does the time needed to prepare food and clean up make fast food appealing?
- How challenging is it to answer these questions?
- How embarrassed do you feel by some of the answers?
- Which questions disturb you, to admit your honest answers to?
- If you do not have the shape you would like, do you have goals for what it might be?
- If you do not have the weight you would like, do you have goals for what it might be?
- If you have had significant changes in shape or weight, to what extent have these changes changed your experience of food and eating?
- To what extent have you given up trying to change your shape or weight, because you do not expect your eating to change?
These questions did not delve into nutrition, but that subject is crucial to understanding what to eat, when to eat, how to eat, and even where to eat. Unfortunately, the media regularly has stories about the latest scientific news about food and eating, but that news is often confusing.
A recent article focused on this confusion:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2026/03/23/nutrition-advice-fiber-salt-saturated-fat
The article may only be available if you subscribe to the Washington Post, but I will pass on the 3 main ideas. The author wrote:
“Nobody can get a straight answer to the simple question: What should I eat? …that simple question is very hard to study. Most evidence is lousy, and yields inconsistent answers. You can find some kind of support for almost every diet theory going.”
Nevertheless, she believes there are three solidly evidence-based ideas worth guiding your eating by: keep fiber high, keep salt and saturated fat low.
The challenge is to put her suggestions into practice. High fiber, low salt, and low saturated fat foods are probably not high on your list of tasty foods. As with much change, however, knowing where you are going, and taking small steps, can in time create significant change.