Eating has become a behavior with a lot of rules and restrictions.

Some of these are medically recommended of course, such as a gluten-free diet for those with celiac disease.

But other restrictive diets, such as paleo and the keto diet, unnecessarily forbid foods for the majority of people.

Unfortunately, our obsessive and often times extreme diet culture appears to fuel food cravings and emotional eating. In fact, binge eating disorder is now the most common eating disorder in adults (1).

This is not my area of expertise, but it is for Kimberley Wilson, a UK-based chartered psychologist who specializes in nutritional psychiatry, particularly eating issues.

I asked Kimberley about the issues with restrictive diets and how to stop food cravings and emotional eating, or at least minimize their power over us.

Here are some of the most important takeaways from our conversation. Her answers have been lightly edited for clarity.

Weight loss can be a real challenge…

Especially if you regularly drink alcoholic beverages.

This is because alcoholic drinks tend to be high in calories, and we tend to drink a lot of them. Many people don’t factor this in when they think about their calorie intake for the week.

Importantly, some alcoholic drinks are significantly higher in calories than others.

This article looks at how many calories are in your favorite alcoholic drinks, as well as the best choices for those watching their waistline.

While there are many health benefits to being vegetarian, some of us don’t want to completely cut out meat.

This is the idea behind the flexitarian diet, which reduces meat intake instead of avoiding it altogether.

This article discusses the potential benefits and risks of following a flexitarian diet to help you decide if it’s a good plan for you.