What Is Emotional Eating?
Emotional eating is when people use food as a way to deal with feelings instead of satisfying hunger. Have you ever finished a whole bag of chips out of boredom or downed cookie after cookie while preparing for a big test? But when done a lot—especially without realizing it—emotional eating can affect weight, health, and overall well-being.
Not many of us make the connection between eating and our feelings.
One of the biggest myths about emotional eating is that it's caused by negative feelings. Yes, people often turn to food when they're stressed out, lonely, sad, anxious, or bored. But emotional eating can be linked to positive feelings too, like the romance of sharing dessert on Valentine's Day or the celebration of a holiday feast. Sometimes emotional eating is tied to major life events, like a death or a divorce.
Emotional eating patterns can be learned: A child who is given candy after a big achievement may grow up using candy as a reward for a job well done. It's not easy to "unlearn" patterns of emotional eating. But it is possible. And it starts with an awareness of what's going on.
We're all emotional eaters to a degree. But for some people emotional eating can be a real problem, causing serious weight gain or other problems. The trouble with emotional eating is that once the pleasure of eating is gone, the feelings that cause it remain. And you often may feel worse about eating the amount or type of food you like.
Next time you reach for a snack, wait and think about which type of hunger is driving it.
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A. Believe it or not, we've all been there. B. One study found that people who eat food like pizza become happy afterwards. C. Understanding what drives emotional eating can help people take steps to change it. D. Boys seem to prefer hot, homemade comfort meals, while girls go for chocolate and ice cream. E. That's why it helps to know the difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger. F. More often, though, it's the countless little daily stresses that cause someone to seek comfort in food. G. If a crying boy gets some cookies, he may link cookies with comfort. |
