For many of us, food is our go-to outlet when we’re sad, emotional or stressed.  Whether it’s a bad day at work, a painful breakup, noisy kids at home or even just a long boring rut, nothing helps better than a big tub of your favourite ice cream, or a bag of chips, or fries from McDonald’s.  That’s the other thing; why does emotional eating always mean fatty sugary foods? I mean, not once did I ever walk out of a tense situation and say to myself ‘man, I need that salad now!’.

Needless to say, emotional eating is definitely a thing we do to manage stress, and it is always with unhealthy foods and typically leads to overeating. The reason we do this is because we simply ‘can’t deal’, and opt to bury our problems instead. Though this may make you feel better for a minute, it is far from an ideal solution and certainly not sustainable. If continued, it is also likely to create more problems and added stress in the long term.

So, why do we do this?

Firstly, it is important to recognise the 2 types of eating: (1) when hungry & (2) just because… If you fall into the latter group, then there must be a reason for it; feeling pressured at a dinner party, giving into temptation, stressed at work, habit, or even just that you are plain bored.

All these reasons are valid enough, and certainly traps that we have all fallen into many times. However, if you start to recognise a consistent pattern of eating when stressed, then it might be time to do something about it, starting with admitting that you are, in fact, an emotional eater.

What exactly is an emotional eater?

Someone who uses food as a means of dealing with their feelings, or rather, distracting them from it.

For example: a person hates their job and comes home at the end of each day feeling exhausted, miserable and undervalued.  Rather than confront the issue head on, they start to comfort eat instead.  Though seemingly harmless at first, this can, over time, turn into an addiction, and like any addiction, comes with its own set of triggers.

The cycle starts when the brain is triggered, typically by something that rouses a negative emotion. As a result, the body’s reaction is to do what is needed to regulate and bring itself back to ‘normal’, i.e., eating something comforting and extremely filling, sometimes to the point of being stuffed. We do this because we feel helpless and also because on some level, we feel entitled and that we owe it to ourselves to make ourselves feel better.

This is bad because not only does it warp what should be a healthy relationship with food, but can also lead to other health problems such as weight gain, diabetes, high blood pressure… etc.

 So, how do we start to stop this behaviour?

Like most things, we start by acknowledging that we have a problem, and making ourselves aware of the triggers. Though avoiding negative feelings completely is impossible, being aware of them is what will eventually prevent us from scoffing down an entire box of cookies. Of course, this takes practice, and won’t happen overnight. The good news however, is that there are ways to stop or at least significantly limit this behaviour.

Stay tuned to learn more about what can be done, both in the here and now and in the long term.  In the meantime, we look forward to hearing your thoughts.

To learn more click here and read our blog on “emotional eating and how to stop it .”