Most people get emotional food at the same time. It can be like eating a bag of chips when you are bored or eating a chocolate bar after a hard day's work. You don't know but Food and Stress are interlinked.
However, when emotional stress is a frequent occurrence or a major factor in coping with one's emotions, then health, well-being, happiness, and weight can be adversely affected.
Quick facts about emotional food:
• There are physical and psychological causes of emotional food.
• Often, emotional eating is caused by stress or other strong emotions.
• Problem-solving strategies can help a person who is trying to reduce the most severe symptoms.
Causes of avoidance
Common causes of emotional eating can include fatigue, habits, boredom, and stress.
Emotions, such as depression, are not the only causes of emotional food. Other common causes reported by people include:
• Boredom: Boredom or loneliness is a common way of emotional eating. Most people live an exciting and active life, and when they have nothing to do they will turn to food to fill that void.
Habits: These are usually driven by a desire or things that happen in a person's childhood. An example would be, having ice cream on the back of a good report card or baking cookies with grandparents.
• Fatigue: It is easy to overeat or overeat without thinking when you are tired, especially if you are tired of doing an unpleasant task. Food may appear to be the answer to no longer wanting to do any work.
Problem coping strategies
The first step a person needs to take to rid himself of emotional food is to identify the causes and conditions that apply to his life.
Keeping a food diary or journal can help identify situations where a person is more likely to eat because of hunger instead of meat.
Following in their footsteps is one way to gain an understanding of one's eating habits.
The behaviors they post can include:
• patterns of poverty levels, perhaps on a scale of 1 - 10
• what they do again when it is boring and unpopular
• how they feel, whether they are bored or angry,
Next, they might look for ideas on how to deal with the causes. For example:
• A person who eats when he is bored may want to get a new book that sounds fun to start reading, or start a new hobby that can be challenging.
• A person who eats because of stress can try yoga, meditation, or taking a self-help trip to cope with his or her feelings.
• A person who eats when depressed may want to call a friend, take a dog for a run, or arrange a visit to deal with his or her negative emotions.
It may also be helpful to talk to a doctor or psychologist to discuss ways to break the emotional cycle.
A nutritionist or doctor and can provide referral to a specialist or additional information on building good eating habits and better relationships with food.
Emotional eating is not just a matter of losing one's self-control or eating less. Similarly, people who are prone to stress are more likely to exercise self-control.
The causes are complex and may include one of the following:
Child development
Emotional nutrition can be a form of learning from childhood that can be difficult to break.
For some people, eating emotionally is a way of learning. During childhood, their parents gave them control to help them cope with a difficult day or situation, or as a reward for a good thing.
Over time, a child who reaches a cookie after getting a bad grade on a test can become an adult holding a cookie box after a hard day at work.
In an example like this, the roots of emotional food are deep, which can make breaking a habit even more difficult.
It is difficult to deal with emotions
It is common for people to struggle with difficult or unpleasant feelings and emotions. There is a feeling or need to quickly correct or destroy these negative feelings, which can lead to unhealthy behavior.
And emotional food is not just a matter of negative emotions. Eating lots of candy at a fun Halloween party, or more so on Thanksgiving are examples of food for the holiday itself.
Physical impact of stress
There are a number of physical reasons why stress and strong emotions can cause a person to overeat:
• High levels of cortisol: Initially, stress causes the appetite to decrease so that the body can cope. When stress persists, another hormone called cortisol is released. Cortisol increases appetite and can cause overeating.
• Craving: High levels of cortisol from stress can increase appetite for sugary or fatty foods. Stress is associated with an increase in hunger hormones, which can also contribute to unhealthy appetite.
Physical hunger compared to emotions
It is very easy to miss the emotional hunger of physical starvation. But there are factors that set them apart.
Recognizing these subtle differences is a first step in helping to establish emotional eating habits.
Is the famine coming sooner or later?
Emotional hunger often strikes quickly and suddenly and makes you feel rushed. Hunger is rarely sudden or sudden unless it is time for a person to eat.
Does food crave certain foods?
Emotional starvation is often associated with cravings for junk food or something unhealthy. A person who is physically hungry usually eats anything, and a person who is emotionally hungry will want something specific, such as refrigerators or pizza.
Is there such a thing as mindless food?
It doesn't make sense.