The Psychology of Eating

This course is written by Dr. Esme Banting, a Clinical Psychologist from the University of Oxford who specialises in all things food, eating and weight, with expert input from Heather Pursey, a Chartered Physiotherapist who specialises in effective behaviour change. In this course you will learn everything you need to know about the psychology of eating.

One reason that diets often don't work in the long term is that they miss out a really important thing - our psychology. There are so many factors that influence our eating behaviour and we believe that understanding THIS is key to having a health relationship with food. We cover topics including:How genetics influences our psychology and eating behaviour - why no two people's relationship with food is ever the same.

How our own life experiences play a role in creating our unique 'food fingerprint'How eating can turn into a habit over time and also lead to patterns of emotional eatingWhat cravings are, why we get them and how we can respond to them effectivelyHow the food environment we live in shapes our eating behaviour and ways to manage this to take care of your health. Next we delve deeper into the psychology of habits. We look at how much of our day to day lives are driven by habit and the impact that this can have on our eating and health.

We explore the power of habit when it comes to food and help you become more aware of what your eating habits are. We look at how we can use a simple habit formula to effectively create new habits that promote health AND break old habits that are no longer serving us. Finally we take a look at an area that is often totally overlooked by other courses on the psychology of eating.