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Sep 15, 2022 · It’s common for people to turn to food for comfort as a way to cope with big, difficult feelings. When you eat in response to emotions, it’s called emotional eating. Everyone does it sometimes.
If you’ve ever gone through an emotional trauma, or a period of stress, loneliness, or depression, and try to avoid your emotional distress, you may have turned to comfort eating as a maladaptive coping mechanism to escape your unprocessed emotions and unresolved issues and lift yourself up.
Using healthy coping skills that aren’t related to food (meditation, mindful breathing, distraction, seeking emotional support, etc.) Keeping a journal in order to process your grief, emotions, and stressors. Practicing mindfulness and radical acceptance related to your loss.
- Feel good. Eating food high in fat, sugar or salt activates the brain’s reward system. For example, chocolate has a strong effect on mood, generally increasing pleasant feelings and reducing tension.
- Self-medication. There seems to be a consistent connection between negative emotions and unhealthy foods, a phenomenon called emotional eating. In a bad mood, people are drawn to unhealthy foods (sugary and fatty) as a coping mechanism.
- The need to belong. We tend to associate certain foods with members of our family, social gatherings, and people taking care of us, such as Thanksgiving holidays with family.
- Nostalgic eating. There is a strong link between scents and emotional memory. The smell of foods can evoke vivid and detailed emotional memories of our past (Reid, et al., 2014).
- Why Is Less Nutritious Food So Addictive? There’s a reason a bag of chips is so much tastier than a plate of carrot sticks and dip. Manufacturers who produce processed food have one goal in mind.
- Out of Sight, Out of Mind. Ever notice how quickly and easily you can finish a bowl of M&Ms when they’re right in front of you? One of the ways to help manage those cravings is to remove yourself from seeing the culprit in the first place.
- Stock Up on Nutritious Food. Focusing on improving your eating habits is a more positive and effective strategy than trying to stop eating processed food altogether.
- Try a Glass of Water. Before grabbing that last cookie from the lunch room, ask yourself whether you’re actually hungry or thirsty. It’s quite common for people to confuse signs of dehydration for hunger because the feelings of thirst are too subtle compared to those of hunger.
Jun 2, 2021 · Counteractively, by overly restricting certain foods or limiting your food intake to suit a certain calorie goal, you can end up feeling strong food cravings and overeating later.
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3 days ago · Put a stop to emotional and stress eating by identifying triggers, fighting cravings, and finding more satisfying ways to feed your feelings.
