Emotional eating is the
tendency of its sufferers to respond to stress by eating, even when not hungry,
often high-calorie or high-carbohydrate foods that have minimal nutritional
value. The foods that emotional eaters crave are often referred to as comfort
foods, like ice cream, cookies, chocolate, chips, French fries, and pizza.
About 40% of people tend to eat more when stressed, while about 40% eat less
and 20% experience no change in the amount of food they eat when exposed to
stress.
While emotional eating can be a
symptom of what mental-health professionals call atypical depression, many
people who do not have clinical depression or any other mental-health
issue engage in this behaviour in response to momentary or chronic stress. This
behaviour is highly common and is significant since it can interfere with
maintaining a healthy diet and contribute to obesity.
Causes, triggers, of emotional
eating
Like most emotional symptoms,
emotional eating is thought to be the result of a number of factors rather than
one single cause. Some research is consistent with girls and women being at
higher risk for eating disorders, showing they are at higher risk for
emotional eating. However, other research indicates that in some populations,
men are more likely to eat in response to depression or anger, and
women were more likely to eat excessively in response to failing a diet.
It is thought that the increase
in the hormone cortisol that is one of the body's responses to stress is
similar to the medication prednisone in its effects. Specifically,
both tend to trigger the body's stress (fight or flight) response, including
increased heart and breathing rate, blood flow to muscles, and visual
acuity. Part of the stress response often includes increased appetite to
supply the body with the fuel it needs to fight or flee, resulting in cravings
for so-called comfort foods. People who have been subjected to chronic rather
than momentary stress (like job, school, or family stress, exposure to crime or
abuse) are at risk for having chronically high levels of cortisol in their
bodies, contributing to developing chronic emotional-eating patterns.
Psychologically, people who
tend to connect food with comfort, power, or for any other reasons than
providing fuel to their body can be prone to emotional eating. They may eat to
fill an emotional void, when physically full, and engage in mindless eating.
Some people whose emotions cause them to eat may have been raised to connect food
with feelings instead of sustenance, particularly if food was scarce or often
used a reward or punishment, or as a substitute for emotional intimacy.
Warning signs of emotional eating
Warning signs for emotional
eating include a tendency to feel hunger intensely and all of a sudden, rather
than gradually as occurs with a true physical need to eat that is caused by an
empty stomach. Emotional eaters tend to crave junk foods rather than seeking to
eat balanced meals and the urge to eat is usually preceded by stress or an
uncomfortable emotion of some kind, like boredom, sadness, anger, guilt, or
frustration. Other hallmarks of emotional eating are that the sufferer may feel
a lack of control while eating and often feels guilty for what they have eaten.
Who treats emotional eating?
A number of different
health-care professionals evaluate and treat emotional eating. As this symptom
can occur at nearly anytime across the life span, everyone from paediatricians,
family practitioners, and other primary-care physicians may address this
problem. Nurses, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants may be involved
in caring for emotional-eating sufferers. Mental-health professionals who are
often involved in assessing and treating this issue include psychiatrists,
clinical psychologists, social workers, and licensed counsellors. While any one
of these practitioners may care for people who engage in emotional eating, more
than one may work together to help the person overcome this symptom.
How do health-care providers diagnose
emotional eating?
The diagnosis of emotional
eating is made after first ensuring that the sufferer has had a physical
examination and lab work to be certain that the symptom is not part of some
genetic or other medical condition like Prader–Willi syndrome. As part of the
mental-health aspect of the examination, the patient may be asked a series of
questions from a standardized questionnaire or self-test to help assess the
presence of emotional eating. Thorough exploration of any history of
mental-health symptoms will be conducted such that emotional eating can be
distinguished from other eating disorders like bulimia, binge eating, or
pica. A mental-health professional will also explore whether other forms of
mental illness are present.
What is the treatment for
emotional eating?
Overcoming emotional
eating tends to involve teaching the sufferer healthier ways to view food and
develop better eating habits, recognize their triggers for engaging in this
behaviour, and develop appropriate ways to prevent and alleviate stress.
An important step in managing
stress is exercise, since regular physical activity tends to dampen the
production of stress chemicals, even leading to a decrease in depression, anxiety,
and insomnia in addition to decreasing the tendency to engage in
emotional eating.
Engaging in meditation and
other relaxation techniques is also a powerful way to manage stress and
therefore decrease emotional eating. Therefore, engaging in one or two
meditation sessions a day can have lasting beneficial effects on health, even
decreasing high blood pressure and heart rate.
Refraining from drug use and
consuming no more than moderate amounts of alcohol are other important ways to
successfully manage stress since many of these substances heighten the body's
response to stress. Also, indulging in use of those substances often prevents
the person from facing their problems directly so they are not able to develop
effective ways to cope with or eliminate the stress.
Other lifestyle changes that
can decrease stress include taking breaks at home and at work. Refrain from
over-scheduling yourself. Learn to recognize and respond to your stress
triggers. Take regular days off at intervals that are right for you. Structure
your life to achieve a comfortable way to respond to the unexpected.
For those who may need help to
deal with stress, stress-management counselling in the form of individual or
group therapy can be very useful. Stress counselling and group therapy have
proven to reduce stress symptoms and improve overall health.
Cognitive behavioural therapy
(CBT) has been found to be effective as part of treatment for combating
emotional eating. This approach helps to alleviate stress by helping the
individual change his or her way of thinking about certain issues. In CBT, the
therapist uses three techniques to accomplish these goals:
Didactic
component: This phase helps to set up positive expectations for
therapy and promote the person's cooperation with the treatment process.
Cognitive
component: This helps to identify the thoughts and assumptions that
influence the individual's behaviours, particularly those that may predispose
the sufferer to emotional eating. A variation of the cognitive component of
therapy is teaching mindfulness, paying non-judgmental attention to the present
moment. Mindfulness involves thinking more reflectively, increasing one's
emotional awareness, and tends to lead to an increased ability to separate
one's emotions from hunger.
Behavioural
component: This employs behaviour-modification techniques to teach the
person how to stop emotional eating and use more effective strategies for
dealing with problems.
If stress produces a full-blown
psychiatric problem, like post-traumatic-stress disorder, clinical
depression, or anxiety disorders, then psychotropic medications,
particularly the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), can
be extremely useful. Examples of SSRIs include sertraline, paroxetine, fluoxetine,
citalopram, or escitalopram.
Overeaters' Anonymous is a
longstanding self-help group that can be an important resource for developing
healthier ways to view food and recognizing and coping with triggers for
engaging in emotional eating. Nutritionists, therapists, and other support
groups can be other invaluable resources.
Prognosis of emotional eating
If left untreated, emotional
overeating can lead to complications, like difficulties achieving weight
loss, obesity, and even to the development of food addiction. On the other
hand, people who are prone to emotional eating are also often more responsive
to stress reduction in correcting their tendency to emotionally eat compared to
individuals who tend to eat less when exposed to stress.
Is it possible to prevent emotional
eating?
The prevention of emotional
eating primarily involves reducing stress, using constructive ways to
understand and manage emotions, and by using food as sustenance rather than a
way to solve problems (eating to live rather than living to eat). Research also
shows that thinking about the future rather than staying focused on satisfying
an immediate urge tends to prevent emotional eating. Other tips to prevent
emotional eating behaviors include engaging in meditation, exercise, and
other constructive stress prevention and stress-management techniques, as well
as avoiding caffeine, alcohol, or drugs.
Source: Health Digest
