Why You Can't Stop Using Food for Comfort with Kelly McDaniel
EP369 with Kelly McDaniel
Why can changing the way you eat feel so emotional, even when you know exactly what you want to change?
In this conversation, I sit down with therapist and Mother Hunger author Kelly McDaniel to explore the deeper emotional and relational layers that can become intertwined with food.
Through Kelly’s Mother Hunger framework, we look at how early experiences with nurturing, safety, attachment, and caregiving may influence the way some of us relate to food later in life—and why food can sometimes become connected with comfort, connection, routine, and relief.
We also talk about emotional eating, body image, nervous system regulation, fasting, food noise, GLP-1 medications, and the messages about our bodies that can be passed from one generation to the next.
This conversation gave me an entirely new way to think about some of the struggles I’ve seen women experience when changing how they eat, because sometimes there may be more happening beneath the surface than what’s on the plate.
In This Episode:
Kelly’s Mother Hunger framework
Why food can become emotionally significant
What Kelly means by “surrogate comfort”
Why changing eating patterns can bring up difficult emotions
Food and nervous system regulation
What mothers can unintentionally teach daughters about their bodies
Kelly’s perspective on food noise and GLP-1 medications
How support and connection can help us create new patterns
Resources Mentioned:
Meet the Guest
Kelly McDaniel
Kelly McDaniel
Kelly McDaniel developed the term “Mother Hunger” in her first book Ready to Heal, identifying the attachment trauma between mother and daughter that creates an environment ripe for love addiction. Part educator, part clinician, McDaniel also illuminates the cultural bind for women who are healing from addictive relational patterns in her book Ready to Heal: Women facing love, sex and relationship addiction, and her contribution to Making Advances; A Comprehensive Guide for Treating Female Sex and Love Addicts.
Never Miss an Episode
If these conversations support you, I’d love to keep them coming directly to you.
Subscribe to my email list to get new podcast episodes, blog posts, and updates delivered straight to your inbox.
Follow the Live Like a Girl Podcast with Dr. Mindy Pelz on your favorite podcast app so you never miss a new episode.
Subscribe on YouTube for full episodes, clips, and deeper conversations you won’t find anywhere else.
This episode is for educational and informational purposes only and is not financial, legal, or medical advice. Please consult a qualified professional about your individual situation.
Comments