Not all eat to satiate hunger. Some of us eat to feed our feelings and not a growling stomach. Such an eating habit, also called ‘emotional eating’, is defined as excessive eating mainly of junk or comfort foods in response to feelings rather than hunger. Pondering over this for even a minute leaves one agreeing to the fact that the strongest cravings for food happen when a person is at his weakest point emotionally. At this point, a person’s emotions and not body dictate when and/or how much he/she eats.
People turn to food for comfort – consciously or unconsciously – when facing different stressors like a difficult problem, depression, loneliness, chronic anger, anxiety, frustration, problems with interpersonal relationships, and poor confidence. All of these can result in overeating and unnecessary weight gain. Experts estimate that 75% of over eating is due to feeding emotions rather than hunger.
Various foods are known to have specific compounds that uplift one’s mood. For instance, eating chocolates when depressed helps boost one’s spirit as chocolate increases the level of endorphins in the brain, which have an antidepressant effect. Similarly, turkey and chicken are a good source of amino acid Tryptophan, which is a good mood enhancer. Research has also shown that fats itself elevate one’s moods and those on low fat diets always seem under the weather.
So how exactly does food solve one’s emotional highs and lows? The answer to it is that food serves as a distraction. When facing stressful situations, focusing on comfort foods helps take one’s mind off the impending situation. Sadly in such situations, eating in moderation does not always happen, resulting in binge eating and obesity. The bigger issue is that most people do not recognise this habit and hence don’t know when to put a full stop to their eating.
Distinguishing True Hunger From Emotional Eating
The first step towards treating emotional eating is to recognise its differences from true hunger. Knowing the telltale signs of emotional eating would help identity foods that are the most likely culprits, and eventually help overcome the problem.
- Eating when you are actually hungry allows you to explore different options, whereas eating to satiate anything other than an empty stomach makes you crave for only certain foods.
- Emotional hunger comes suddenly as pangs that can be satisfied instantly with the food you crave for; physical hunger on the other hand can wait.
- Emotional eating continues even when you are full, but with true hunger, you are likely to stop once you are full.
- Emotional eating, although temporarily lifts one’s mood, it actually leaves behind feelings of guilt for having over indulged, unlike physical eating.
Managing Emotional Eating
Some of us know that they eat for emotional reasons and are ready for a change. In order to be able to bring about this change, identifying emotional triggers that stimulate binge eating is the first step. These triggers could be anger, frustration, depression, fatigue, hopelessness, boredom or lack of comfort or control. Often when we realise that eating a particular food helps deal with a certain negative emotion, our mind associates that food with a emotional cure and leaves our body pining for it each time we are afflicted with that negative emotion. Hence it is absolutely necessary to identity such emotional triggers and build up self-empowering skills, such as self-assured communications, give oneself a pep talk, stop diluting emotions with food and find a way to relax.
The next step is to put off that desire to eat by doing any other enjoyable activity, when you feel overwhelmed. According to the Tufts Nutrition web site, these alternate activities could range from walking to calling a friend, playing cards, cleaning your room, doing laundry, or something productive to take your mind off the craving — even taking a nap. If these methods of distraction seem insufficient, practicing relaxation techniques or group counselling can help.
We all eat for emotional reasons sometimes. But when eating becomes the only or main strategy a person uses to manage emotions, then problems arise — especially if the foods a person is choosing to eat to satisfy emotions aren’t exactly healthy. Giving up the habit of feeding your feelings and using moderation are the key to overcoming this problem. Try to balance your diet according to your needs and never underestimate the effect of the food you eat on your mood.
Article by Snigdha Taduri for Biomed-ME