If you eat something in your dream, you might be physically hungry. However, a dream about food can indicate a hunger or a thirst that is not physical. You may need to be nourished emotionally, intellectually or spiritually. You may thirst for sexual gratification.
Jung believed that food in a dream represents the qualities that you are absorbing in order to continue to develop as an individual, or the qualities that you need to assimilate in order to grow.
Eating in a dream can also be a sign that you need to be more practical and pay more attention to material things.
Dreams about eating can refer to sexual matters. Since ancient times, people have considered some foods to be aphrodisiacs. Licking and sucking food in a dream can have sexual connotations. Freud thought that food symbolized sexuality because the mouth is the primary erogenous zone. He thought that fruit in dreams represented women’s breasts or buttocks.
Where Are You Eating?
If you dream that you are eating with others, you are happy and prosperous, or expect to be.
If you dream that you are eating alone, it can be a sign that you enjoy being independent, but it can also mean that you are feeling lonely.
If you are eating in an environment that is uncomfortable or even frightening, you may be unhappy with the relationships that you have in waking life.
How Much Are You Eating?
Dreaming that you are overeating can mean that you indulge yourself in waking life. It can also mean that you have been using up too much emotional energy in your waking life and need to regain your emotional strength.
If you dream that you aren’t eating enough, or that you are hungry and desperate to find food, your waking life needs may be unfulfilled.
If you dream that you are on a diet, you may be trying to limit your emotional involvement in a situation. Dreaming that you are abstaining from eating altogether can be a sign that you have too much responsibility in waking life and need to give some of it up.
A dream that someone you know is keeping you from eating can be a sign that this person is preventing you from satisfying yourself emotionally. However, it may also be a sign that this person is trying to protect you from self-destructive behavior.