Fig. 2

Proposed salutogenic explanation of the turning points (TPs) for unhealthy eating. Turning points for unhealthy eating caused an overload of stress(ors) that disturbed the emotional stability strongly. The SoC-GRR-SRR pathway’s full capacity was needed to handle the tension created, which necessitated appraising diet as non-stressor. In some, (unhealthy) eating was used for dealing with the tensions (i.e. emotional eating). Often this caused rapid weight gain which complicated the situation further because diet became then a stressors on top of the tension-overload. Child-rearing patterns are important for developing GRRs. Growing up in poverty, experiencing childhood neglect/abuse, not feeling acknowledged by parents for the unique human being they are, were early life conditions/experiences that hindered an adequate development of psychosocial GRRs. In addition, turning points for unhealthy eating affected psychosocial GRRs negatively (e.g. damaged ego identity; feeling unsupported), which weakened the SoC-GRR-SRR pathway, and complicated dealing with stressors further