Are Your Emotions Choosing Your Food?
Research has shown that over 75% of eating is emotionally driven.
I first want to address that we all have experienced some form of emotional eating in our lives! Research has shown that over 75% of eating is emotionally driven. That is huge! It is also perfectly normal to have emotions tied to eating and food. After all, who does not want a little bit of joy when eating your favorite foods!
What exactly is emotional eating?
We have interwoven our emotions with how we eat food and food itself as a society. Think back to your earliest memories of associating a feeling with food. Your parents may have soothed your crying with a bottle when you were a baby. Maybe you were rewarded with ice cream if you completed all your chores. Were your family gatherings centered around food?
Problems arise when this becomes our main go-to in coping with or soothing emotions. We can often respond to emotional triggers with food instead of being truly hungry, resulting in food becoming our comfort or security in times of stress or need.
The bottom line is that when people use food for “coping” with their feelings rather than satisfy true hunger, they may be emotionally eating. ~ Penni
Reaching for food to comfort, soothe, or suppress the way you feel several times a week or more could be exhibiting emotional eating tendencies that are now creating an adverse effect. To make matters worse, you may add guilt and shame afterward, creating a little bit of a roller coaster with your emotions.
We will explore how to recognize an emotional hunger cue from a genuine hunger cue that the body is sending us, learn how to make better choices with our food regardless of where the hunger cue is coming from, and when to seek help with our emotions.
How can you distinguish emotional hunger from actual hunger?
Is it ever ok to grab that piece of chocolate because you have had a bad day?
Occasionally if you want some comfort food, or what they refer to as feel-good foods, this is perfectly ok. But when it becomes your first instinct after a bad day or your first choice in coping with your feelings, this is when it becomes a problem.
Let’s take a look at emotional hunger first. One of the ways you can determine between the way you are feeling causing the desire for food and the actual physical genuine need for food is how it comes on.
- The emotional aspect will almost always come on suddenly.
- You may want specific foods, such as chocolate, pizza, or any one particular food you feel you need.
- You may look to external cues to signal “I am full,” such as empty your plate.
- The standard shut-off mechanism of fullness is not kicking in the way it should, and you eat to the point of almost being sick from overeating.
- When you feel shame or guilt after eating, this is a red flag of emotional eating.
Now let’s take a look at how true hunger may present itself.
- True physical hunger will build slowly over time from one meal to the next throughout the day.
- You will be open to a variety of food choices.
- You will look for the body’s internal cues, such as feeling fullness as you gradually eat.
- You may have actual physical signals from the body, such as hunger pangs, feeling light-headed or dizzy due to insulin levels dropping, and stomach growling.
Noticing and being aware of what is leading you to eat will significantly help determine if you are hungry because your body needs nourishment and energy or reacting to feelings and events.
Yes, you can help yourself!
We need food in our lives to nourish us, provide energy, help us grow, repair our bodies, and sustain us. We tend to focus on emotional eating as one-directional, but what we eat affects our feelings.
The great news is you can take steps to change your habits and relationships with food!
Take a moment to reflect on your childhood memories and how they may have affected your relationship with food. Make a quick shortlist of 3 circumstances where food influenced your feelings and emotions.
You may start to see a pattern of feelings associated with certain foods — your first step to bringing mindfulness and awareness to your associations of emotions and food.
Take a moment to think about three ways your emotions or feelings play into meals now, with your kids and family, your friends, or at work?
Understand the cause by being mindful and paying attention to your feelings when hungry or what led to hunger. Create a plan!
Manage your emotional eating.
Here are a few tips and tools you can use to help manage emotional eating. You can also use a food journal or create a food diary.
Learn your triggers of emotional eating!
Emotional eating can affect both males and females of all ages. Many contributing factors may arise to trigger emotional eating. Here are a few widespread causes below, and some may be easy to fix; others may be a work in progress.
- Stress ~ when stressed, your body floods with cortisol. Cortisol, in turn, creates cravings for sugary, fatty, or salty foods.
- Inability to cope with strong emotions.
- Hormonal issues, both natural and those induced by medications
- Food is readily and easily available, making it very easy to grab food in times of need for comfort and soothing.
- Boredom, or mindlessly eating while doing an activity (think of watching television and eating!)
- Extremely hungry to the point of being “hangry.” The popular term “hangry,” meaning a hunger that is now causing anger, is a prime example of mood and food going hand in hand!
- Gatherings and holidays
- Restrictive eating and dieting
- Medical conditions such as depression, SAD or seasonal affective disorder, pain, and diabetes will usually warrant professional evaluation to determine if the condition is causing emotional eating or the eating habits are driving the situation.
Utilize the 555 methodologies: Have a plan!
- Five people you can call
- Five things you can do
- Five places you can go to
- Five things you can say to yourself
- Five ways you can distract yourself
Use the SWAP method: Make better choices!
- S = swap out foods for healthier choices
- W = wait do not respond or grab food immediately
- A = address the feeling, find actions to soothe, and comfort does not have to be pleasurable but soothing.
- P = pursue another activity besides eating.
When is it time to seek help?
It is imperative to know when it may be time to seek professional help. ~ Penni
Sometimes, no matter how hard we attempt to help ourselves, we may come to a point when it is time to acknowledge we need help.
If you suffer from an eating disorder, a medical condition, clinical depression, any other physical or mental illness, or just feeling overwhelmed are just a few times when you need to seek professional help.
There is hope, and there is help! You are not alone!
Here are a few links to get you started if you feel overwhelmed or need some support and guidance. I am not affiliated with any of the links on this page, just passing on information for those who may want it!
Eating Disorders Helpline ANAD
If you would like to see more of my writing, please feel free to click the links below! I appreciate, and am so grateful for the encouragement! ~ Penni Aubrey
