Emotional Eating

Our minds are sensitive to feelings of reward when the body takes in certain substances.  Eating in large quantities for reasons other than hunger is considered emotional eating.  The emotions, and not the body, are the ones dictating which foods to eat.  Emotional eating is usually linked to stress-coping mechanism.  There are also several factors that are believed to be causes of emotional eating like:

Social eating:  Seeking social approval and support under stressful moments may often be the cause of emotional eating.  Sweets and chips are the most accessible meals that these people share, and they often fail to realize that they’ve consumed large amounts of junk foods.

Comfort Foods.  Comfort foods are mostly associated with our childhood habits.  Our folks often reward or console us with fancy snacks and meals.  These practices have instilled in us an emotional attachment to food throughout our growing years.  We become accustomed to these favorite meals as we age, and we associate each food to both rewarding or depressing events.

Cortisol Cravings.  Since emotional eating is highly related to stress, studies show that large amounts of cortisol during stressful times account for these unexplained cravings.  Stress is a physical response to environmental stress wherein the body releases cortisol hormones in preparation for fight or flight.  The ugly thing about it is that chronic stress results to high amounts of cortisol in the body which may allow binge eating to be the “fight” response to stressors.

Chemical Contents of Food.  The best theory so far is that certain chemical contents in food give us a natural high.  Most comfort foods associated with emotional eating are alcohol and sweets.  Alcohol intake depresses the nervous system, heart rate, and respiratory rate, making us able to forget stress-related situations.  Alcohol intake also reduces inhibition.  Chocolates and other sweets are known to release endorphins which is an anti-depressant and a pain blocker.

There are methods of detecting emotional eating habits.  We just have to know the symptoms of this condition.  Emotional hunger is felt rather sudden and you crave for specific comfort foods.  These are meals that you think will be able to satisfy your, but logically wouldn’t.  Emotional hunger feels like it needs to be satisfied instantly with the food you crave while physical hunger can wait.  Emotional eating knows no “fullness”… you continue to grab anything at hand because you just want to.  Lastly, this disorder can leave behind feelings of guilt; eating when you are physically hungry does not.

These are some of the causes and characteristics of this bothering condition.  Some might consider it okay to happen once in a while.  But we must remeber not to put our health in a compromised state.  The moment that you “think” emotional eating is okay, then you start to allow yourself to be controlled by this premise.  Emotional eating is emotional eating and it ISN’T good… it isn’t okay.  Once we let our emotions take hold of our eating habits, there’s a big possibility that we migh not see it as a health threat anymore in the long run.

If you can identify with the causes and symptoms, please seek medical assistance.