Emotional Eating

I am starting this article straight out by saying, I am not a licensed clinician. I have had some classes in psychology while in school. I was in a program that was preparing students to move into counseling careers. I chose a different path within my chosen field of Human Services. I do a fair amount of research when I am gathering information for each blog I write. I make sure the sites I find on-line are reliable and reputable sources. I avoid quackery and the “out there” ideas. I have a strong interest in psychology and a fairly good understanding of it. I am telling you this because emotional eating is a loaded subject. I am merely at the tip of the iceberg in what I will be writing. I tell you all of this to let you know I don’t have all the answers, I doubt even the best trained medical personnel out there have all the answers. I encourage you to ask for help, reach out for help if you are having emotional eating issues that are getting in the way of a healthy lifestyle.

Please use this as a reference to cue in to your personal emotional eating triggers and find a preferable alternative to eating in the information provided below.

“Emotional eating is eating for reasons other than hunger”, Jane Jakubczak, RD, University of Maryland.

People emotional eat for a variety of reasons:
· Boredom
· To fill a void in your life
· Stress
· Fatigue
· Depression
· Anger
· Loneliness
· Anxiety
· Reward yourself
· Sadness
· And more, you may be able to fill in your own personal reason

Emotional Hunger vs. Physical Hunger

· Emotional hunger comes over you unexpectedly. Physical hunger is gradual.
· Emotional hunger finds you craving a specific food. With a physical hunger you are open to food choices.
· Emotional hunger makes you feel like you have to have it and NOW. While you may be hungry physically, it can wait if need be.
· Emotional hunger keeps you eating beyond feeling full. Physical hunger you usually can stop when full.
· Emotional hunger leaves you feeling guilty. Physical hunger should leave you satiated with no guilt feelings.

According to Brian Wansink, PhD, Director of the Food and Brand Lab at the University of Illinois and author of “Mindless Eating”, “comfort foods are foods a person eats to obtain or maintain a feeling”.

Comfort foods differ according to gender. In a survey of 1,005 consumers:

Female’s top 3 comfort food choices were
· 74% ice cream
· 69% chocolate
· 66% cookies

I don’t know where a chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich would have fallen.

Male’s top 3 comfort food choices were
· 77% ice cream
· 73% soup
· 72% pizza or pasta

Soup was rated as most healthy and the greatest percentage (not given) of people said soup makes them feel good about themselves.

In an article published by Wansink in July 2000 American Demographics, what you choose to eat to satisfy your emotion depends on the mood you are in.

· 32% of happy people chose pizza or steak
· 39% of sad people chose ice cream and cookies
· 36% of bored people chose potato chips

In reading this, my first thought is, ice cream seems like such a “happy” food. But, in stopping to think about my own personal preferences, if I am feeling down in the dumps, I crave a goopy, hot fudge sundae, with the works. I have found, it sounds better in theory, because when I give in to the urge, I feel physically blecky later in the day. I try to focus on feeling badly and not cave.

“When it comes to comfort foods that aren’t always healthy, like fattening desserts, Wansink also offers this piece of information: ‘your memory of a food peaks after about four bites, so if you only have those bites, a week later you’ll recall it as just as good experience than if you polished off the whole thing.’ So have a few bites of cheesecake, then call it quits, and you’ll get equal the pleasure at lower the cost.”

According to Jane Jakubczak, RD, 75% of overeating is a result of emotional distress.

One of the best pieces of advice that seems to help many people is keeping a journal of what you are eating and why you are eating it. This helps you realize the problem and once you realize it, you are empowered to do something about it.

When you are feeling the need to emotionally eat, here are some alternatives that will leave you feeling better about yourself:
· Take a walk
· Call a friend
· Put on music
· Do housework, yard work, laundry
· Wash your car
· Do deep breathing exercises
· Take a bubble bath
· Write a letter (this can be quite therapeutic, you can pour your heart into it and re-read it and when ready, tear it up and throw it away, or, if it’s an angry letter, burn it on the BBQ grill. Hmmm, how did I ever get that idea? Hey, I did feel better when it was burned up!)

Ask for help if you are not coping as you would like. Talk to your health coach, your physician, a dietician. If you have health insurance, see if you have counseling services available to you. Know you are not alone. Maybe you have a good friend or family member or even a passing acquaintance struggling with emotional eating, support each other. Rome wasn’t built in a day and lifelong issues don’t go away overnight, they didn’t arrive overnight. And, like I continue to say, be kind to yourself.

References:
www.webmd.com, Emotional Eating: Feeding Your Feelings
www.medicinenet.com Weight Loss: Emotional Eating
http://helpguide.org Binge Eating Disorder
www.mayoclinic.com Weight-loss help: Gain control of emotional eating
http://findarticles.com The Taste of Comfort: Food for thought on how Americans eat to feel better