How do you apply the Buddha’s Teaching to Food Obsession & Disorders? - Dhamma Q&A 

A question received in relation to our examination of the Four Nutriments and Going the Four Wrong Ways:
“I’m a bit of a foodie and I was wondering how big of a problem this can be when it comes to the Physical Nutriment. When we went through the Buddha’s teaching on how we should view food in the Son’s Flesh Sutta and then more recently the process of craving, it really made me look at my relationship with food. Do you have any advice on applying the Buddha’s teachings to food obsessions and even eating disorders?”
The key to answering this question is about CORRECTING OUR MISAPPREHENSION OF FOOD (Physical Nutriment) - at the view level, thoughts and perceptions.
To answer the question we examine:
- and revisit the process of craving food
- the process of going down the first unprofitable direction and the "bigger picture" of our predicament, not seeing the decay, and the danger of misapprehending food and creating habits and tendencies with the wrong view
- the Buddha's four key terms of how we should consider food in the Puttamaṁsa Sutta
- highlight the importance of the perception of the repulsiveness of food (ahārepaṭikūla)
- run through a key meditation to help penetrate this Dhamma
Some of the suttas that are directly or indirectly referred to:
- Āhāra Sutta (SN 12.11)
- Paṭiccasamuppāda Sutta (SN 12.1)
- Samādhi-bhāvanā Sutta (SN 22.5)
- Sekha-pāṭipada Sutta (MN53)
- Vipallāsa Sutta (AN 4.49)
- Puttamaṁsa Sutta (SN 12.63)
- Suttavebhaṅgiya (Pe 9)
- Atthirāga Sutta (SN 12.64)
- Saṁvara Sutta (SN 35.98)
- Kummopama Sutta (SN 35.240)
- Asubha Sutta (AN 4.163)
- Stories of Hungry Ghosts (Petavatthu)
To view the video on Moderation in Eating as something to be developed in the Sekha-pāṭipada Sutta - • MODERATION IN EATING -...
Bohoma pin to the person that asked this question.
The AUDIO has been uploaded to the Sutta Meditation Series podcast channel hosted at anchor.fm/suttameditationseries. It can also be accessed on multiple podcast platforms including Spotify, Podcast Addict, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts and more.
Blessings of the Triple Gem. Theruwan saranai.