Until just over a year ago, I loved eggs. I had perfected scrambled eggs, lived for a good poached egg and, if I had a busy lunch hour, a quick boiled egg with spinach was enough to get me through to dinner.
Truly, nothing compared to them.
Until one lunch hour when, suddenly, my plate of scrambled eggs suddenly made me feel sick. Racing-to-the-bathroom sick, unable-to-even-handle-the-scent sick. It happened within seconds of taking a bite.
Hoping it was just a weird one-off, I tried in vain a few times to eat some eggs just to find that no, regardless of how I prepared them, I always felt unwell. Genuinely devastating.
However, as strange as this is, I know that I’m not alone.
In a post that got 43k likes, TikTok user @renee.noe posted a video of her cooking scrambled eggs captioned: “The egg ick is crazy cause one second you’re fine and the next you’re about to throw up”, with people commenting saying “this is too real” and “never related to something more in my life”.
To get to the bottom of why this happens – not only with eggs but other foods – HuffPost UK spoke exclusively with Dr Sham Singh, a psychiatrist at WINIT clinic, to learn more.
Why we get food icks
Dr Singh explains: “I consider ‘food icks’ to be partly rooted in the hardwiring of our disgust response, which is meant to protect us from noxious or spoiled food.
“One distressing experience with a particular food – a bad reaction, say, or an unpleasant texture – can become seared into our memory over time and determine our reactions of disgust upon later contact with the smell, or even the thought, of that food.”
This makes a lot of sense. I know that my own response is definitely partly tied to that initial reaction.
The psychiatrist adds: “From a neuroscientific perspective, it is the amygdala of our brain that plays a leading role in creating these negative emotional responses, teaching us through conditioning to avoid the stimulus for our protection.”
So, by making me feel disgusted, my brain is trying to protect me from experiencing that sensation again. Interesting.
Dr Singh explains that he has had patients come to him in distress following this kind of response. He says: “If someone comes to me in distress with a persistent “food ick”, we often explore where it’s coming from – whether this is about learned association, some sort of traumatic food-related event, or an anxiety disorder manifesting itself through eating.
“Understanding that these food aversions often come from our self-protection mechanisms themselves, it becomes a lot easier not to judge them but to work with gradually lowering sensitivity via techniques such as exposure therapy or cognitive behavioural approaches.”
How to recover from a food ick
Right now, returning to a once-beloved plate of eggs seems impossible but according to Dr Singh, it can be done.
He explains: “I very often recommend gentle reintroduction – that could be doing smaller portions and combining them with other foods one likes, so that the eggs are not the main focus. Some people also find visualisation techniques helpful: imagining a more positive, neutral scenario while thinking about eggs, because that challenges the negative association.
“It can feel overwhelming at times, so if this feels really daunting, trying working with a mental health professional to expose or work cognitively through challenging things little by little.”
Here’s hoping I can be reunited with them.
Help and support:
- Mind, open Monday to Friday, 9am-6pm on 0300 123 3393.
- Samaritans offers a listening service which is open 24 hours a day, on 116 123 (UK and ROI - this number is FREE to call and will not appear on your phone bill).
- CALM (the Campaign Against Living Miserably) offer a helpline open 5pm-midnight, 365 days a year, on 0800 58 58 58, and a webchat service.
- The Mix is a free support service for people under 25. Call 0808 808 4994 or email help@themix.org.uk
- Rethink Mental Illness offers practical help through its advice line which can be reached on 0808 801 0525 (Monday to Friday 10am-4pm). More info can be found on rethink.org.