As you can tell if you have read other articles of mine, I can be pretty emotional about food. Enjoying a well prepared meal, especially in the company of friends or loved ones, is a pleasure that's hard to top.
Many people share my love of good food and good dining, of course, but there is a point at which emotion about food can lead us down the wrong path. Emotional eating is a relatively new term to describe a problematic behavior that is one of the sources of today's obesity epidemic.
In brief, emotional eating is any eating that you do for any reason other than because you are hungry. It has also been described as the practice of eating large quantities of food, especially junk food, in response to one's feelings rather than to hunger. And although feelings--generally, negative ones--trigger emotional eating, the point of such behavior is to keep those feelings out of our awareness.
Emotional eating is not officially recognized as an eating disorder, but it nevertheless is a problem for millions of people. Along with the closely related phenomenon of stress eating, it is one of the behaviors that can easily torpedo even the most well-meaning dieting attempt.
Emotional eating is a habit, and like other unwanted habits, the trick to beating it is to substitute good habits for it. Yes, that is easier said than done. But speaking as somone who has gone through her own emotional eating phases, it is worth the effort.
Here some tips for breaking free from emotional eating:
- When you start to feel those bad feelings welling up--the ones that lead to eating when you're not hungry--don't turn away from them. Allow yourself to experience them fully.
- Monitor yourself throughout the day and periodically rate your degree of hunger or fullness . Don't eat unless you can honestly tell yourself that you are physiologically hungry in that moment.
- When you eat, do it consciously. Don't read, talk to others or watch TV. Be aware of every bite of food that you put into your mouth. Most importantly, be aware when you become full and no longer need to eat to satisfy hunger.
- Know your specific emotional eating triggers. Keep a food diary for a few days, writing down what (and how much) you eat, and how you felt when you started eating. This will uncover negative eating patterns that you should try to avoid.
- Find something instead of food to provide comfort. Exercise, go to a movie or concert, or call up a friend you haven't spoken with in a long time. When you've successfully prevented an impending episode of emotional eating, treat yourself to a non-food award.
- Don't keep junk food or so-called comfort foods lying around your house or office.
- When you snack, do it in a healthy way. Eat some fresh fruit, a handful of walnuts or pecans or some popcorn (without butter!).
- Make sure you are eating a balanced diet. If you're not getting enough food to meet your basic energy needs during regular meal times, you will be more disposed to eating emotionally. Balance your meals by including vegetables, fruits whole grain breads or pastas and lean meat.
- Get enough sleep at night, and--if schedule permits--take a short nap in the afternoon. Being chronically unrested leads to poor mood, which in turn is a precursor to emotional eating.
- Learn to meditate. Meditation will help keep you from taking your thoughts too seriously. It will stop your negative thoughts from leading you into the downward spiral that ends in dark, cloudy feelings.
