Everyone eats for reasons and hunger is prime one. 

But have you ever find yourself munching to cope with unpleasant emotions? 

Yes, many of us use food as a source of comfort when we’re feeling sad, anxious, or alone. In such situations, food can be soothing and distract us from what’s really bothering us.

Making unnecessary trip to the fridge out of boredom or brewing another cup of coffee after having a stressful day at office or reaching out for packet of chips when you have an argument with friends or family counts as emotional eating. 

Understanding emotional eating

Emotional eating means that we eat for reasons other than hunger just to soothe our feelings.  Basically, we eat in order to escape, alter or intensify our unpleasant emotions. 

As an emotional eater, we have the desire to eat even when our stomach is full. We eat and we may eat more than we need or want. Eventually, it becomes our habit to use food to deal with stress and other emotions that we want to turn off.

But the question is why stress makes us to eat?

When we are under stress, our body makes more of a hormone called cortisol. Increase in cortisol levels leads to a rise in the Ghrelin hormone (the hunger hormone, released from the stomach) . The Ghrelin hormone can cause cravings for carbohydrates and sweets and therefore, causes inflammations which eventually result in high cortisol levels and cycle goes on resulting in an increase in appetite. 

So, when we are under stress, we have a stronger appetite and greater desire to seek out food.

Additionally, our brain starts to release a chemical called serotonin after having sweets or carbs. Serotonin boosts our mood. That’s why we feel much better with intake of cake, cookies or French fries.

And that is the reason why many people dive headfirst into a box of cookies or a bag of candy or diet soda after a long -tiring day.

This doesn’t mean emotional eating happens only when we are under stress. Happy events can also lead to it. Many people use food as a reward at joyous events such as big achievement  or success.

Yes, both positive and negative emotions can alter eating behaviors in different ways, for different people. 

Emotional eating and health consequences

Eating for a wrong reason definitely interferes with making healthy food choices. Moreover, eating more means having more calories than we actually need. And we end up in unhealthy weight gain. This puts us at greater risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, obesity and cancer. 

Such mindless eating has emotional consequences as well. Our own behavior makes us to feel guilty and embarrassed. We feel bad or worried about weight gain, which hamper our self-esteem and make us more stressed. The vicious cycle goes on and brings long-term unhappiness too.

Breaking the cycle of emotional eating

If we take a closer look for the reason behind emotional eating, stress is the prime culprit. But here we need to remember that our stress eating is not going to provide a solution for life’s problem. Emotional eating only functions momentarily. On the contrary, it will do more harm than good.

Then, why not to find out a new activity that help us to deal with stress?

Every time instead of turning to food, we can take simple walk, call to a friend, journal our thoughts, or listen to music  just to divert our attention from eating to something good. 

Coming to food, we can make more thoughtful choices in our daily diet. For instance, choosing dry fruits over potato chips or fruit juices over tea or coffee. When we’re hungry, choosing healthier snacking option like fruits, roasted makhanas or unsalted popcorn helps to make good food choices.

If we are truthful with ourselves and realize our emotional eating pattern,  our brain is more likely to make a healthier connection with food. Staying aware about our own bad eating habit is the key to change.

To put it simply, adopting healthy lifestyle can go a long way towards helping us to process our feelings and make a huge difference.

Disclaimer 

Mediclin Brain Health’s content is for informational and educational purposes only. Our website is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.