For many of us, hunger is a complicated experience. It’s not as simple as “feel hungry, eat food.” Instead, our relationship with eating is shaped by diet culture, childhood experiences, and, for many, trauma.

Diet culture tells us that eating less makes us better. Childhood routines teach us that food happens on someone else’s schedule. And trauma? Trauma can disconnect us from our bodies entirely. When we are dissociated, living in survival mode, or carrying old messages that our hunger isn’t valid, we stop recognizing our needs—including the need to eat.

How Hunger Gets Silenced
From a young age, we’re trained to ignore our bodies:

• Rigid Meal Schedules: Schools dictate when and how long we can eat, often not aligning with when we’re actually hungry.
• Moralizing Food Choices: Growing up in a diet-focused household can teach us to associate food with shame, rather than nourishment.
• Trauma’s Impact: When we’ve been hurt, especially in ways that make us feel unsafe in our bodies, we may detach from physical cues—including hunger.

Over time, hunger stops feeling like a normal bodily signal and starts feeling like something to suppress, ignore, or control. And when we don’t listen to hunger, we don’t feed ourselves adequately, leading to exhaustion, irritability, and deeper disconnection from our needs.

Relearning How to Nourish Ourselves
Rebuilding trust with your hunger takes time, but it’s possible. Here’s where to start:

1. Create Consistency. If hunger cues feel unreliable, structured meal times can help reset them. Aim for three meals a day, plus snacks, even if you’re not sure you’re hungry.
2. Keep Food Accessible. Small, easy options—like trail mix, string cheese, or cut-up fruit—can help prevent prolonged hunger and make eating feel less overwhelming.
3. Reframe Your Mindset. Instead of labeling food as ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ try focusing on how different foods make you feel. Your body deserves nourishment, not restriction.
4. Make Eating a Mindful Practice. Where possible, try to eat without distraction. Notice textures, flavors, and fullness cues. Rebuilding trust takes curiosity and patience.
5. Honor Your Own Rhythms. Not everyone thrives on the same eating schedule. Some people feel best eating smaller meals more frequently; others prefer larger, more defined meals. Experiment and find what works for you.
6. Give Yourself Permission to Eat. You don’t need to earn food through productivity or restrict it as punishment. You deserve to be fed, period.

Food is one of the most fundamental ways we care for ourselves, yet it’s often tangled up in shame, fear, and societal messaging that tells us we should ignore or suppress our needs. Relearning how to nourish yourself is an act of self-trust—one that strengthens your connection to your body and your ability to care for yourself in other ways.

Our bodies are always communicating with us, even when we’ve spent years tuning them out. You deserve to listen. You deserve to eat. You deserve to trust yourself again.

Thank you for letting me see you,