Binge eating isn’t random - Here’s how it grew in your life

Binge eating can feel like a mystery—why does it happen, and why does it seem so out of control? It can appear suddenly in our lives, slowly taking over our thoughts, behaviours, and even relationships.

Binge eating is much like a tree growing on your life’s island. But unlike a tree that enriches the land, this one drains your energy. As it grows, it takes up more and more space, casting a shadow over different parts of your life.

It doesn’t appear overnight—it has roots, essential conditions for growth, and a structure that keeps it alive. Let’s break it down so you can see binge eating in a new light and understand why controlling it will never work.

The Essentials for the Binge Eating Tree to Grow

For a tree to grow, it needs three things: a seed, a nourishing environment, and a moment of sprouting. Similarly, binge eating arises from three fundamental components: genetics, environment, and activating events.

The Seed: Genetics

Our genetic makeup is like the seed of the tree—it lays the foundation for how we perceive, interpret, and respond to the world. Research suggests that 50-60% of our binge eating are contributed by genetic factors. These genetic components often leave traces in our personality traits, neurotypes, and family history.

Some common traits linked to binge eating include:

• Perfectionism
• OCD tendencies
• Neurodivergence (e.g., ADHD, autism, highly sensitive personality)
• Family history of eating disorders, disordered eating, mental health conditions, or substance dependencies (e.g., alcohol, recreational drugs)

While a seed alone doesn’t guarantee that a binge eating tree will grow, it provides the potential. However, genetics alone is not enough to cause binge eating.

The Soil, Water & Air: Environment

A seed needs the right conditions to sprout. Binge eating thrives in an environment where stress, pressure, or a sense of unsafety is consistently present. These factors create the "nutrient-rich" conditions for binge eating to take root:

• Food and meal experiences: Early experiences of food scarcity, being forced to finish meals, strict food rules, or using food as a reward.
• Diet culture and weight stigma: Pressure to diet, hyperfocus on body size and shape, associating thinness with health and morality, labeling foods as “good” or “bad.”
• Relational or complex trauma: Rejection, exclusion, abuse, or feeling unloved, uncared for, or having complicated relationships with caregivers.
• Community disconnection & pressure: Not fitting societal or cultural norms (e.g., LGBTQ+ identity, racial or religious exclusion), being left out of social circles, lack of parental support, or career pressures (e.g., athletes, fashion/beauty industry, corporate environments).
• Chronic stress and high expectations: Growing up in a high-achieving, emotionally unstable, or emotionally suppressive environment.

Why does this fuel binge eating? Binge eating often functions as a safety-seeking behaviour—when the body feels unsafe, it looks for a way to cope, soothe, or escape. For many, food becomes a go-to source of comfort. It often exists with other common safety-seeking behaviors include people-pleasing, perfectionism, and overachievement.

The Sprouting Moment: Activating Events

Even with the right environment, a seed won’t become a tree unless it sprout and break through the ground. This moment, known as the activating event, is often the turning point where binge eating first takes root.

Think back—what was happening in your life when binge eating first started?

Some common activating events include:

• A traumatic event (e.g., assault, abuse, grief)
• Body/appearance-based bullying or teasing
• Major life transitions (e.g., moving out, university, pregnancy, career shifts, migration)

These experiences often create difficult-to-cope emotional responses, and food steps in as a powerful and immediate coping mechanism. Over time, binge eating becomes the ultimate coping strategy which your body learned to rely on.

The Leaves, Flowers, and Fruits: Symptoms of Binge Eating

What we often see and focus on are the visible parts of the tree—its leaves, flowers, and fruit. These represent the symptoms of binge eating, for example:

• Feeling out of control around food
• Eating large amounts quickly
• Eating in secret
• Feeling guilty or ashamed after eating
• Body dissatisfaction

Most binge eating advice you see online focuses on controlling food intake, but this is like trimming a tree’s leaves—it doesn’t stop the tree from growing. The leaves, flowers and fruits will always regrow - often faster and more frequent as the tree grow stronger and branch more - the cravings and urges will only come back stronger and more frequently.

The binge eating tree will keep taking up more space in your life until its deeper roots and trunk are addressed.

The Trunk and Roots: How the Binge Eating Tree Persists

Once a tree starts growing, it spreads roots to absorb more nutrients and develops a trunk to support its structure.

The trunk and roots represent the FUNCTION of binge eating—what most health advice, diet programs and approaches fail to address. This is why binge eating keeps coming back, despite repeated efforts to stop.

Binge eating often serves functions such as:

• Coping with overwhelming emotions
• Managing stress or anxiety
• Expressing unmet needs (hunger for connection, validation, rest)
• Punishing oneself due to self-criticism or guilt
• Providing a sense of safety and comfort
• Acting as a way to regain control (first through dieting and portioning, then through rebound binge eating)
• Becoming part of one’s identity after years of struggle

The Key to Stopping Binge Eating

As a binge specialist dietitian, a majority of my job with client is to create a sense of safety around food and identify its function in life and replace it with alternative coping strategies.

Just like removing a tree requires addressing its deepest roots, overcoming binge eating requires addressing its underlying triggers, emotional drivers, and coping mechanisms.

When binge eating no longer serves a purpose, it naturally fades away. - no willpower, restriction and self-control needed.

Want to Learn How to Uproot the Binge Eating Tree in Your Life?

If you're tired of trying to “control” binge eating, only for it to come back stronger, it's time to understand its roots and replace them with sustainable strategies.

✨ Join my free webinar to learn the 3 steps to stop overeating without relying on willpower. CLICK HERE to check the next available session!