Food is a critical, must-have source of nourishment and energy.
Without food we would not be able to perform our daily
activities. Our muscles would wither, our nervous system and
brains would fail. Whether we like it or not: We all need food.
What you might not know though, is that food has another
important role in our lives: Comfort and entertainment.
Culturally and instinctively we prepare and serve foods to
comfort those who have experienced loss, to celebrate joy, or to
show friendship and love. And that's where emotional eating can
cause many problems.
What Is Emotional Eating? Emotional eating is simply the act of
eating to feel better emotionally. We, as normal human beings,
see food as more than just an energy source for our body. We
like to enjoy our food, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Science tells us though, that some foods actually promote good
feelings by causing certain "feel-good" chemical reactions in
our brains. And that's when eating can become a problem: Because
some people eat to "feel better"... or because they can't deal
with strong emotions such as pain, anxiety, stress, joy, or
boredom.
Emotional eaters turn to food as a source of distraction from
dealing with feelings. It's often a vicious cycle though: People
eat to deal with their bad feelings, then feel bad for having
done so, yet turn around and eat again to soothe the guilty
feelings caused by the first round of emotional eating. Needless
to say, emotional eating can lead to serious eating disorders,
weight gain, obesity, and depression.
How Do I Know If I'm An Emotional Eater? Do you turn to food
when you're not hungry, but sad, stressed, or bored? Do you
think about food constantly, to the point of feeling obsessed?
Do you regularly try diets and fail - leading to guilt and
further over eating? Do you think about or attempt to purge
excess food by throwing up or using laxatives? Do you exercise
compulsively when you think you've eaten too much?
If you answered yes to any of the above, there's a good chance
you're an emotional eater and you could be endangering your
health.
How Do I Overcome Emotional Eating? The first step is
recognizing and acknowledging you have the problem. Fixing the
problem will take time and persistence, because you effectively
need to train yourself out of bad eating habits and into good.
Since emotional eating is caused by using food as a coping
strategy for emotional distress, dieting tends to just create
more problems, because if you fail to stick to your eating plan
you're likely to feel quite guilty. And as an emotional eater,
that guilt will only lead you to eat more.
So instead of trying to focus on what you're eating, or how
much: You'll need to work at finding other ways to cope with
negative emotions. You could try simple things like self talk,
chewing gum, or getting busy with work or hobbies when emotions
run high and you find yourself digging through the fridge even
though you aren't hungry. You could also try self help tapes and
books, or find a support buddy to call. You might also consider
getting help from a Personal Coach or Psychotherapist who deals
with emotional eating.
Sometimes you'll need the help of a professional to make these
changes
As you work on replacing comfort food eating with other habits
and responses, you'll feel much better about yourself both
emotionally and physically. And you'll be well on your way to
living a much healthier, slimmer life!
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About the author:
© 2005, Kathy Burns-Millyard. Kathy is a professional
published writer who covers a variety of popular topics such as
health, fitness, decorating, and gardening. Find more weight
loss articles by Kathy at
ScaleTippers.com
