"The part of the book that I really wanted to elaborate on and there just not enough pages to go there were the effects of trauma. The most challenging patients that I see as a gastroenterologist are the people who have been victims of physical, emotional, sexual, psychological trauma. It changes them and they don't realize the way that it affects their guts. And typically, when they get to me, I'm the 5th or 6th doctor (gastroenterologist) they've been to; they're looking for solutions related to their gut microbiome or to their digestive issues; and what I discover after getting to know them and building trust in that relationship, is that the solution is not through food but more so it's actually healing that trauma that's eating at them at a subconscious level."

“If you want to change your long-standing relationship to comfort eating you must do two things.

First, you must be willing to dig deep and explore the recurring pain that ve been using food to escape, numb or find comfort in. Second, you must engage in that exploration from a place of compassion for yourself, rather than shame. When you explore the emotion behind your comfort eating you will discover a context that finally allows your wild relationship with food to actually make perfect sense.

Trigger emotions are the biggest clues that we have for tracing our way back to the real pain. What feelings triggers eating for comfort? Maybe it's anxiety, or loneliness, or depression; maybe it's the fear of abandonment, fear of rejection, or fear of failure — or a combination of several of those feelings. Identify what your trigger emotions are and then spend some time examining the backstory of your relationship to that feeling. When did it first show up? In what relationships or settings?”