Emotional Eating

Emotional eating can affect any one at any age and it’s an extremely common issue around the world.

Emotional eating

Emotional eating means that a person eats as a response to a certain emotion, whether it’s a good or a negative one, regardless of being really hungry or not, in order to feel better.

Stress eating can make you stuck in a cycle:

• The cycle starts when you feel a certain emotion.
• This feeling makes you eat to cope with this emotion, which makes you feel better shortly.
• Later, you start to feel bad because of stress eating, and those feelings can lead to emotional eating all over again.

Differences between emotional and physical hunger

• Physical (or real) hunger comes gradually, it can wait, it gives options, any type of food is good, and it stops when being full.
• Emotional hunger comes suddenly, it can’t wait, it triggers the need for certain types of food, it doesn’t stop when being full, and it makes the person feel ashamed or guilty after eating.

Causes of emotional eating

• Not being able to identify emotional hunger from physical one, and this is an essential part for the parents while they’re raising their children. The person needs to listen to the body when it says that it’s hungry or full.
• Strict diets.
• Anxiety, depression, stress, lack of sleep, and boredom.
• Major life events, like relationship conflicts, money issues, work stressors, and health concerns.
• Seasonal stressors, like cold temperatures.
• In children, emotional eating can occur as a result of boredom, anger, loneliness, depression, resentment, stress, insecurity, fatigue, and happiness.

Managing of emotional eating

• Try to understand your body and listen to your instincts.
• Before eating, ask yourself whether you’re really hungry or not.
• Be mindful of what is happening to you and try to understand it completely.
• Manage your stress and find other ways to relieve it, like listening to music and exercising.
• When being bored, find other things to do, like practicing your hobbies.
• Change the diet if it’s very strict.
• Don’t get yourself to be very hungry because it can lead to overeating.
• Talk to your children and try to understand what they’re feeling.
• Don’t hesitate to seek the assistance of a specialist when necessary.