WHAT IS EMOTIONAL EATING?
Emotional eating is a primary reason for obesity and for people to eat when they are not hungry. This week aims to sensitize oneself to dynamic eating mechanisms and better understand the urge to reach for food in times of frustration, stress, and fear.
When you are hungry, this can be indicated by various signals. A growling stomach, lack of concentration, or physical weakness, for example, suggest that your body needs food. Even if you are “hangry” (when hunger is depressing the mood), this is a clear sign that something edible is required as quickly as possible.
In emotional eating, the motivation to eat is not hunger – at least not superficially. Negative emotions such as boredom, stress, and frustration lead to the fact that you mainly reach for sweets, chips, and other comfort food. Natural foods such as vegetables and fruits serve this purpose far less often.
Emotional eating can ruin not only your eating habits but your whole life if you don’t look and solve it for yourself. But, unfortunately, a lot of people eat when they are not hungry. Instead, they eat out of sadness, stress, or because they are angry. This brings further problems because, on the one hand, the emotions are ignored, and on the other hand, eating out of emotions often results in an unhealthy diet.
Emotional eating plays an important role when it comes to eating habits. Because whether fat or thin, productive or not: Today, science knows that 80% of our diet is determined by stress in our lives. Eating under stress is not uncommon for emotional eaters – and that all too often leads to health problems.
It starts with a handful of carrots, turns to a few pieces of cheese, and your hands are deep in a wedge of ice before you know it. When you go to bed tired and think you’re only barely keeping things under control, you act out of desperation. Well-known
It doesn’t take much to get emotional about food, and it happens frequently. However, emotional eating doesn’t need you to clear your refrigerator at a time completely.
CAUSES OF EMOTIONAL EATING
The most common emotions that cause people to eat emotionally are loneliness, sadness, and depression. What woman doesn’t reach for the fridge when she’s feeling lonely and sad? In addition to food, people can also use alcohol and drugs to regulate, dampen, or even completely turn off their emotions. Emotions such as anger, fear, and frustration are also reasons for many people to eat emotionally, drink, or use drugs.
CHOCOLATE
Eating certain foods does indeed make us feel better. A good example is chocolate. Certain substances in chocolate directly affect the brain and thus serve as an instant medicine against depressive and sad feelings. There are many more foods that improve mood. That could even be a steak. Spicy and spicy foods also improve the mood.
BINGING
Some of the foods people use to improve their mood contain high amounts of fat, salt, and sugar. In that case, the price of the consolation is too high compared to the proceeds. The pleasant feeling only lasts for a moment, but the metabolism has to deal with enormous amounts of calories. The body does not receive enough nutrients, and signals from the body are increasingly ignored. The great ‘binging’ has begun.
HOW TO OVERCOME EMOTIONAL EATING
RECOGNIZE THE CAUSE
Identifying the trigger is critical. What causes the eating impulse? Is the stress level at the job particularly high right now? Or is there a stressful relationship conflict? A mood diary can help you document the situations you reach for the bar of chocolate without being hungry, what led to it and how you felt afterward.
SHOW INSIGHT
The food only relieves the symptoms for a short time because it only covers up the underlying problems. Worse still – if you eat continuously without feeling hungry, health problems can arise. So instead of going to the refrigerator, you should try to channel negative feelings into positive channels.
EATING HEALTHY IS BETTER, BUT NOT A SOLUTION
“The food intake itself does not make it any better. An apple or whole-grain product does not help to solve the real problem either. The nutrition expert compares this to “methadone,” a substitute for heroin. For drug addicts, this may be the first step in escaping addiction. To combat the cause, psychological counseling is also required to determine why those affected are looking for the “kick” in the first place. For frustrated food, healthier foods are better for the body, but the problem lies deeper here. The problem is not the food itself but the reason you grab a snack: stress, frustration, tension.
FIND A BETTER ALTERNATIVE THAN FOOD
Instead of reaching for food, you should find things and activities that are good for you. “You have to try to break out of habitual patterns of action and recharge yourself positively – not through the food. That’s what it’s all about. This often works through conversations with friends who give you strength or confidently donate through motivational sayings and verses.
