Many suffer from what is known as emotional eating. In this condition, food is eaten for pleasure rather than for sustenance as it is supposed to. It is used as a coping mechanism to alleviate feelings of distress, such as sadness, grief, depression, anger, boredom, and other related emotions.
Emotional eating is very different from eating to satisfy actual hunger, and can be to blame for weight gain, obesity, and emotional and psychological distress due to the guilt and shame it can induce in those who do so.
Typically, the emotional eater will choose unhealthy foods such as ice cream, cookies and other sweets because it is the fat and sugar in them that creates a feeling of satisfaction and euphoria as they prompt the reward centers in the brain to release chemicals that make you “feel good.” , like the body’s natural pain relievers, opioids.
Emotional eating can be severe or an occasional occurrence, but for most it becomes a habit, and something they unfortunately don’t even know exists in their own lives. Old habits die hard, as the saying goes, and those who don’t catch on automatically reach for fries and ice cream when distressed or bored.
To break free from the cycle of emotional eating, it’s crucial to understand how it differs from actual physical hunger. This can be more complicated than it sounds, because emotional eaters have spent months or years perfecting the art of using food to deal with feelings, and are usually completely out of touch with their body’s or body’s actual need for food. how does it feel
Since emotional hunger is a powerful thing, it’s important to assess the signs and take a deep look at your own behavior if you want to stop the cycle of emotional eating and overeating.
Emotional versus physical hunger
Emotional hunger is sudden
Emotional hunger strikes suddenly, like an unexpected rain storm on a hot summer day. Usually it is an urgent need for food and feels overwhelming. On the contrary, physical hunger is not so urgent, it is more gradual and also expected, since it arrives at anticipated intervals, such as meal times.
cravings
Unlike physical hunger where a sensible meal will satisfy, including healthy selections like fruits and vegetables, in emotional hunger one has out-of-control cravings for foods high in fat and sugar.
The craving is an urgent need and sometimes it feels like it is something one cannot live without, and only that specific food that is craved will satisfy.
guilt and shame
Nobody feels guilty about eating lunch or breakfast, it’s sustenance, it’s what we humans are supposed to do. But, emotional hunger is often marked by feelings of guilt, shame, and regret after binge eating because deep down the consumer knows that food was eaten for dysfunctional reasons.
mindless eating
Unlike physical hunger, where one sits down to a meal and savors every bite, emotional hunger is often characterized by mindless eating. Without awareness, you can finish a tub of ice cream or a box of cookies without really realizing how much you’ve eaten.
Unlike physical hunger, where one stops eating once full, emotional hunger is never satisfied. The emotional eater will keep eating and wanting more and more food until it is so full that it feels sick.
Emotional hunger is in the mind
Unlike the physical hunger you feel in your stomach when there’s no food or it’s time to eat, emotional hunger is in your mind and includes imagining the smell, taste, and texture of certain foods you crave.
final thoughts
As you can see, there is a profound difference between these two types of hunger.
Can you identify any of these in your own eating habits?
For many, emotional eating is a habit that encompasses much of their lives. It is not healthy, neither for the body nor for the emotional state of someone who has been the victim of this type of dysfunctional behavior.
Help is available.
The key is to identify and become aware of the problem and your own patterns about it, and then learn the proper coping mechanisms that will eliminate the need to use food for emotional satisfaction.