Remember the movie Eat, Pray, Love? The need to restore passion, including in eating — and especially in managing life — is central.
Imagine an Italian drinking coffee or a French person eating a baguette. Is it done in a rush, multitasking, or sitting calmly and stylishly? The coffee and the baguette aren’t particularly nutritious, but health comes from the process — presence, attention, and feeling while eating.
When we eat with passion, the dominant emotion is love. Not fear, guilt, or the need for comfort. That is, eating from love — not from trying to receive love. Notice the difference. It is significant and also affects the speed and quantity of eating.
What Happens When We Eat to Fill an Emotional Void?
When we eat from a lack of love, in the illusion and expectation that food will comfort or fill love — the result is overeating that increases the desired emotional void and creates unwanted physical excess.
In contrast, eating with passion:
• Happens from respect and love, not from a lack of them
• Occurs with presence and attention
• Involves connection to flavors and sensations while eating
• Allows natural balance
Excess occurs when we try to fill a void in the wrong place. For example: When the void is emotional — like a lack of attention or love — and the action is attempting to fill the void with foods we have learned to receive alongside attention and love, or during a family gathering symbolizing belonging and love.
Common examples:
• A family breakfast on Shabbat with jachnun or burekas
• “Be a good girl, and you’ll get ice cream”
• “Chocolate hearts” as a gesture of love
The Truth About Emotional Eating
Emotional eating has gained a negative connotation, but in reality, all eating is emotional. The connection between nutrition and emotional nourishment exists from birth — it’s not inherently bad or something to fight. But it has been distorted, and for many today, eating creates more guilt and fear than joy and passion for life.
Concepts like “sweet sins” or guilty pleasure originate from prohibition, which leads to loss of passion and an increasing need for love. The prohibition is on food given in connection with love.
Here is the hard truth: The body can cope with harmful food, but eating out of continuous prohibition and fear is more harmful than the food itself.
Living from Fear vs. Living from Passion
Managing life from fear creates a state where one fears dying, but in reality, dies from fear of life — loss of passion.
Education in control and avoidance increases emotional hunger and distrust, leading to secret eating and dishonest behavior with oneself. Diets that feel like “life imprisonment” disconnect us from connection to passion and inner confidence.
The more I released areas of suppressed passion in my life — for example, diets that felt like “life imprisonment” — the more trust and confidence returned to feel passion.
Eating with passion is the result of a proper connection between body, food, and mind.
Nutrition alone is not enough: Emotions, beliefs, thoughts, and senses are part of our nourishment. In a nurturing consciousness, we learn to organize these connections so that emotional hunger is filled with passion for life — not food.
If the instruction “eat with passion” triggers fear in you, the problem is not the food but the lack of connection to the desired emotion.
How to Awaken Eating with Passion: A Practical Guide
Step One: Discover Passion in Life
First, examine yourself: What excites you? Where in your life is there any passion that does not depend on people or external conditions? Set aside for a moment the desire to change your diet, and pay attention to the presence of passion in life in general.
Practical exercise:
Write a list of activities that spark passion in you, such as:
• Listening to a specific song
• Walking in nature
• Knitting or creating
• Watching a sunset
• Smelling fresh coffee
• Feeling pleasant fabric
Every day, do at least one activity mindfully where you feel the “childlike” excitement, the pure passion.
Why is this important? Dietary change without passion will last a short time, because the illusion that food will fill emotional void will ultimately lead only to guilt and frustration.
Step Two: From Life to Food
Food is our most intimate connection with the world — the saying “We are what we eat” reflects this well. Every bite we eat becomes part of us, our cells, our energy. After awakening passion for life, we can learn and practice eating with passion:
Simple rules to start practicing eating with passion:
- Full presence — when eating, eat mindfully, paying attention to everything chosen to eat. Not by the screen, not while driving, not out of stress
- Connection to flavors — notice texture, taste, and smell. Truly connect
- Love over fear — choose food out of respect for the body, not out of fear
- Connection to sensations — ask yourself: How do I want to feel after the meal?
- If you are in a hurry, slow your eating pace as best you can and honor each bite
Every moment is an opportunity to influence and change. Do not miss it.
There is no need to wait for tomorrow, next week, or “Monday.” Passion begins now — in a small awareness, in a single choice, in a moment of presence.
When you connect to passion for life, you will find that eating becomes more natural, balanced, and satisfying. Not because the body received all the right vitamins (although that happens too), but because the mind received what it truly needs — connection, love, and passion for life.
To vitality!
The author, Anat Inbar, develops the “Nourishing Consciousness” method, is the author of the book You Don’t Gain Weight from Food, and leads courses, lectures, and personal guidance.