Why Eating in Secret Isn't Harmless

Those who’ve been to my house know that I always have a stash of Dove dark chocolates on hand. This is because I like to have a piece or two a day, as a sweet mid-afternoon treat or a bit of dessert after dinner.

And these chocolates come with a message inside. I don’t always read them, but I do sometimes, and I was rather taken aback by this one:

This seemed to give the message that chocolate – even a little square of chocolate – is a “bad” food that must “hidden” from others. And that bothers me for a few reasons.

Foods aren’t good or bad

Any messages that food is good or bad concerns me. No food is inherently good or bad. A food may taste bad, or it may not agree with you, or it may cause an allergic reaction, but that doesn’t mean it’s a “bad” food. Other people may have no problem with it and consider it something good.

Similarly, foods aren’t “good”. They might taste good, have a lot of nutrition, be easy to prepare, or give you energy, but that doesn’t mean they’re “good” in any kind of moral sense.

Putting foods into these categories makes it all too easy to turn the judgment on yourself when eating them. You may think that you’re a “bad” person if you eat certain foods, or that you’re “good” – or that you’ve “earned” something – by eating something that qualifies as “good” food.

But you shouldn’t be judged for what you eat, or judge yourself. That typically only leads to feelings of restriction, and then rebellion, and those don’t end well.

Secret eating is disordered eating

The other problem with thinking of some foods as “bad” is that you’ll likely be tempted to hide the fact that you’re eating them. This can easily turn into an eating disorder, or at the very least, disordered eating.

I remember my own days of eating in secret, or at least, eating certain foods in secret. I felt so ashamed of eating candy or sugary foods because I knew others judged me for it – and I judged myself for it. So, I tried to eat those foods when no one was around, or when I could go in my room with the door closed.

All this did was make me feel even worse about my eating. It didn’t stop me from eating those foods, or encourage me to eat less of them. If anything, I may have eaten more of them. And I guarantee I wasn’t eating them in any kind of mindful way. I was so worried about being discovered that I ate them as fast as I possibly could, which meant I often ate too much.

Additionally, a lot of eating disorders are associated with secret eating, such as bulimia, binge eating disorder, and OSFED (other specified feeding or eating disorder).

In short, eating in secret, or feeling the need to eat in secret, doesn’t lead to anything good.

It’s okay to eat chocolate in public

With that being said, if you’re eating a piece of chocolate, or a large candy bar, or ice cream, or anything else you like, I hope you know you can eat it in public. You don’t have to hide it.

And the more you normalize eating those foods without fear of judgment, the less hold they’ll have over you – and the less hold they’ll have on others, too, when they realize those foods don’t have to be hidden.