Episode Details

Welcome to the Emotional Eats Podcast!

Paige Gordon lived with bulimia nervosa for over two decades. She went through residential treatment, inpatient treatment, therapy, and nutritional counseling, yet continued to struggle.

What made her experience especially difficult was being given explanations for her eating disorder that never seemed to fit. Paige didn't relate to an obsession with thinness, and she didn't feel that emotional eating explained what was happening either. Instead, she describes an intense drive toward food and constant food noise that felt biological.

Eventually, her own recovery experience led her to start asking a different question: What was actually happening in her brain and body?

Today, Paige is an author, advocate, speaker, and member of the Board of Directors of the National Eating Disorders Association. She has become deeply involved in eating disorder research and advocacy, with a particular interest in genetics, brain reward pathways, hunger and satiety signaling, and the potential role of GLP-1 pathways.

In this conversation, Paige shares:

• Why eating disorders may have very different underlying causes from one person to another • What food noise felt like for her and why it was different from hunger • How genetics, trauma, environment, and reward circuitry may influence eating behavior • Her personal experience with GLP-1 medication and why she believes much more research is needed • Why lived experience needs a bigger voice in eating disorder research • Why women struggling with food deserve curiosity and compassion instead of comparison and shame

We also talk about how easily eating disorders can remain hidden, the difference between disordered eating and a diagnosed eating disorder, and why Paige believes treatment needs to become much more individualized.

Paige's upcoming memoir, Searching for Full, tells the story of her eating disorder, recovery, and search for answers. One hundred percent of her royalties will go back into eating disorder research.

This is a fascinating conversation about how much we still have to learn about the brain, eating behavior, and why the same answers may not work for every woman.

About Paige Gordon

Paige Gordon is an eating disorder recovery advocate, speaker, and author of Searching for Full. After living with bulimia for 22 years, she began questioning the long-held belief that our relationship with food is simply a matter of willpower. Today, she combines her lived experience with emerging research in neuroscience and biology to help people better understand food noise, emotional eating, and the complex factors that shape our relationship with food.

As a member of the Board of Directors of the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), Paige collaborates with researchers, clinicians, and advocacy organizations to advance a more biologically informed understanding of eating disorders. Her work encourages people to replace shame with curiosity and empowers them to approach food, body image, and healing with greater compassion and understanding.

Connect With Paige

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paigegordonauthor/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paigegordon/

Website:

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