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Never experience food guilt again

Why do we feel guilty for perfectly reasonable acts?

Kaki Okumura
5 min readApr 26, 2023
Illustrations by Kaki Okumura

Sometimes I overeat, and it’ll leave me feeling, well, not too great about myself.

Maybe I was feeling particularly stressed out, and wanted to comfort myself. Maybe I was just bored, and out of habit I just started snacking on something.

As an imperfect person (as I assume all people are) there are many moments where I will sometimes eat something that doesn’t make me feel my best. I feel a little guilty.

But what to do with these emotions? Well perhaps it’s helpful to reflect on why we feel guilt in the first place.

Why we feel guilt

According to Psychology Today, we feel guilt when we do something we feel we shouldn’t have (or the opposite, which is to fail to do something we should have). And while uncomfortable, it can help provide a strong motivation to apologize, correct a wrong, and behave responsibly in the future.

Which is great if you’ve actually done something wrong– but guilt is a helpful emotion if you murdered someone, not if you enjoyed a slice of strawberry shortcake.

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Kaki Okumura
Kaki Okumura

Written by Kaki Okumura

Born in Dallas, raised in New York and Tokyo. I care about helping others learn to live a better, healthier life. My site: www.kakikata.space 🌱

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