Anger,Fear, Food Choice and Kathie Perry

"It is well for the heart to be naive and the mind not to be."
– Anatole France

 

Are you dealing efficiently with your food choices ? Are you happy with your body image? Are you at your ideal weight? If you answered yes to those three questions , you’re probably doing well. . For those of you that answered no, this post may have some meaning. Women, with abnormal eating behaviors, in a recent study, had difficulty and in fact misinterpreted facial expressions of anger, sadness and happiness.

 There were 80 women studied from the United Kingdom who  were in their 20s. 40  women with high scores on the eating disorder inventory were compared to  40 women who had low scores on the same inventory. This inventory assessed the desire for thinness, bulimia, and body  dissatisfaction.

These women were evaluated for depression, anxiety and, alexithymia. They were shown images of160 faces, portrayed by male and female actors, with expressions of happiness, sadness, fear, anger and disgust.

The high eating disorder inventory women recognized significantly fewer emotional expressions and were more likely  to  label anger as sadness ; and fear as anger or sadness. There were also less sensitive to subtle facial expressions. Researchers suggested that impaired facial recognition, especially anger and fear which may be caused by abnormalities in that  part of the brain associated with emotions. It is Important to be able to differentiate between anger and fear. Can you differentiate between those two facial expressions? Once again, it’s important to know thyself. The more we are in touch with ourselves and others (reality), the healthier we are.

This study suggests that perhaps the inability to accurately assess emotions ,like fear and anger,  in others is related not only to poor food choices , but is also related to impaired interpersonal relationships. How can these individuals have meaningful interactions if they are distorting reality? And , impaired relationships affect the ability to satisfy one’s needs. Just maybe, food happens to be the vehicle chosen taken to” fix” the distortion. However, it’s clear that food can be used to make things worse. Hopefully, you’re not using food to meet your unfulfilled needs. The article  was found in the August 28, 2012 edition of the Wall Street Journal.

Thursday’s TV talk show features Kathie Perry , President of the Western States Trail Foundation. Incidentally, Kathie finished this year’s Tevis Cup ride for the 22^nd time. This young lady is on her way for her 3000 mile buckle . Join us on Thursday to hear her story.