Understand your food dreams & what they symbolically represent

Dreams involving food often explore ideas around what is healthy for you, what sustains you and how you share with others. Just as food in waking life gives energy, makes you stronger, provides immunity from disease and helps you grow, food in dreams can symbolically represent what nourishes and supports you psychologically and spiritually. Eating in dreams may specifically relate to what ideas and beliefs you are taking into your own psyche from outside, what you may be swallowing and integrating into who you are. Depending on what you eat in the dream, this can serve as a warning or as encouragement. Food dreams can also be a prompt to consider what you are consuming. Not just from a literal perspective regarding eating or drinking but also what you purchase, what media you consume and so on. You may need to think about whether the substances in your dream are representing nourishment, medicine or poison.

The phrase “you are what you eat” is especially true in dreams, where everything, even objects, can reflect a part of yourself. To understand the meaning of a particular food in a dream, it can be helpful to describe it. Consider the qualities of the food. Is it warm and comforting, substantial and hearty or light and refreshing? What you are eating may symbolise integrating new qualities into your own psyche. It can also symbolise meeting new people or trying new things that bring these qualities into your life.

It is not common to recall taste in a dream, however if you do, consider if the food was bitter or sweet. Did it leave a bad taste in your mouth or was it absolutely delicious? This can represent recent events, especially with other people. An unpleasant experience may have left you feeling bitter and you could therefore dream of bitter foods. You may also have learned an important but hard lesson, so this food may symbolise that your experience serves as a “bitter pill to swallow”. Sweet foods dreams can symbolise a delightful experience. Alternatively, they may arise if a situation feels cloying or superficially friendly. Fast food dreams could be a sign of trying to support yourself with something that is convenient but provides little value in sustaining you. This could relate to a relationship, a role at work that really should be temporary, or perhaps some unhealthy lifestyle habits.

Dreaming of exotic new foods, maybe even things you have never tasted in waking life, can occur when you are having new experiences. If your mind and senses are being opened to exciting new delights, you may dream of finding or eating strange foods. This can come from travel, study, new friendships or a passionate relationship. These dreams may also arise if you are feeling bored or unfulfilled in waking life and seeking alternative stimulation. Dreams function symbolically as a reflection of what is currently happening in your life, as well as what you wish was occurring. Food dreams can express a physical as well as a psychological desire. You may dream of certain foods to symbolise what you are “hungry for” in life. It is also not unusual to dream of food when dieting, as another form of supressed desires expressed through the subconscious. When you exert your will in waking life to make behavioural changes, your subconscious will often cling to previous patterns because they are so deeply ingrained. This is an entirely normal response and will usually pass as your new way of living becomes habit and old ways of thinking and behaving are overridden by new thought patterns.

Different foods can have personal meanings for everyone. You can start to understand your own food dreams by thinking back to a specific time when the particular food you are dreaming about may have been important to you. Perhaps your dream food was a comfort food when going through a break-up, something your mother made to show her love, that your dad gave you as a weekend treat, or that you ate when you were pregnant. This association can reveal the symbolic meaning that food has to you now. When food is associated with love and comfort in your life, it can appear in your dreams to address an issue relating to loneliness, neglect or lack of support. When you are eating this specific food in a dream, it could be revealing the inner qualities that can nourish and support you at this time. Or it may remind you that others around you love and support you. If you are unable to eat the food in the dream, even though you would like to, it can symbolise feeling unsupported or ill-equipped to deal with the current situation. You may feel literally “starved of affection”.

Dreaming of too much food can symbolise a sense of having “too much on your plate”. You may feel overwhelmed by opportunities, responsibilities or the complexities of life. These dreams could be urging you to find ways to simplify your life. Similarly, you may have trouble eating a certain food in your dream, perhaps being unable to fit it in your mouth, have difficulty chewing it and so on. This can symbolise a sense of having “bitten off more than you can chew” with regard to commitments in your waking life. Difficulty eating in a dream can also relate to the idea of finding something “difficult to swallow” and may arise if you are experiencing a sense of caution around who or what to trust in your life. These kinds of dreams also appear when other habits, such as buying things or spending a lot of time on social media, result in you having too much to consume in waking life. When this behaviour becomes compulsive or unhealthy, it is often due to a deep unmet need. Your dream could then be exploring the notion of how to find something that really nourishes you, emotionally and spiritually. If you dream of a bare table, unfilled cupboards or empty plates and so on, it can indicate feeling you are not getting the nourishment you need in life, that you are missing out on something that is vitally important to your wellbeing.

Alternatively, sharing food in a dream can be a very rewarding feeling, creating a sense that there is something of value you are able to offer to others. In waking life, this may be someone you are providing guidance, assistance or emotional support to in some way. To be offered food in a dream can be your subconscious mind trying to give you a gift or symbolise the integration of deep, shared wisdom. However, accepting food from others comes with risks. In the Bible, when Eve ate the apple, she lost her innocence but gained wisdom. In faerie tales, the eating of food can be dangerous, like Snow White who falls asleep after eating the poison apple. Ancient folk tales also warn that if you eat food in the land of the faeries, you will stay with them forever, or at least for hundreds of years until everyone you know is no longer living. These stories all point to the idea of using caution when dealing with those who would offer you something tempting but that might not be best for you long term.

It can also suggest that if you do accept some new knowledge or experience, you will need to give up something in exchange. Ultimately, there is no one rule for when we should avoid treats from strangers and when it is a blessing to break bread with another. If you are dreaming of food, your subconscious is likely attempting to guide you to make a safe and positive decision.

If the food in your dream is bad or rotten, this is likely telling you that something you are “taking in” is not good for you. It may be a warning against bad advice, or indicating your own behaviours and beliefs are toxic to your health, emotions or relationships. Rotting food can also symbolise something that is past its due date and should be finished with now. If you dream of eating something poisonous, it can represent a belief you hold, a behaviour you are demonstrating or relationship you are in is not good for you, and may even be “poisoning” you.

Dreaming of food can also have a more literal interpretation. If you are hunting for or crave a certain food in your dream, or it seems to be popping up in various parts of your dream, this can be a signal from your subconscious that you physically need to eat a specific type of food. If you are lacking a certain nutrient such as fibre or vitamin C, you may dream of vegetables or orange juice as your subconscious mind picks up the subtle messages from your body and attempts to communicate with your conscious mind to take action. It is good advice to “listen to the whispers of your body, before they become shouts”.

In dreams, a feast or banquet has a more specific symbology. To attend a special feast is to mark a change or recognise the significance of a certain time. Feasts and banquets fall out of the realms of normal eating and elevate it to something sacred, even mystical. Feasting celebrates the relationship between the physical body and the divine spirit, it enhances emotions and brings people together. To have a lot of food in dreams can be a symbol of abundance, of achieving a degree of material security and success in waking life that can now be celebrated. Dreams of a feast may often come after a period of struggle, financial hardship or professional difficulty.

However, food dreams can also relate to spiritual nourishment. A dream feast may occur after a time of emotional challenge, loneliness or isolation that has come to an end, to be joyously celebrated by sharing with others, connecting with a higher power or a deeper sense of self. A feast or banquet may symbolise enjoyment in all that is good in life. To feast in a dream can also be a symbol of indulging, of giving into sensuous pleasures. This type of symbology can mean that you are celebrating abundance. It can also warn against overindulgence. Along with an appreciation of abundance must come an understanding of what is wasteful. Feasts by their very nature are meant to be shared. If there is something you are enjoying in abundance in your life but not sharing with others, you may have a feast dream to remind you that what is not distributed fairly can be spoiled. Feast dreams can also serve to remind us that overindulgence can have unpleasant consequences, and to caution against such behaviour in waking life.

Feasts and banquets are not always entirely about food and consumption. They can be about marking an occasion or celebration. Feasts are inherently social occasions. In a dream, a feast can represent the marking of a great personal accomplishment. If you have achieved something profoundly significant, you may dream of a feast as the various aspects of your psyche join in celebration. You may also dream of a feast as a sign of giving thanks or appreciation for what is good in your life. If you are practising conscious gratitude, you may dream of attending a feast or banquet. Feasts in dreams can symbolise that while you feel you have the basics to survive, those are also the things that can elevate living beyond the mundane.

Feast and banquet dreams remind us that both the physical and the spiritual are important and should be celebrated. They urge us to share what we have, to remember our friends, family and neighbours, and to sometimes step outside the day-to-day pattern of existence to enjoy the magic of life.

Want to learn more about what your dreams mean? Visit our Dreams archive page.