Having a less-than-perfect relationship with food is pretty common. Many people who are healthy, with a balanced diet, will occasionally reach for food in response to an emotional need, as well as for physical hunger.
Food is a pleasure, and should be as such, but when does curling up on the sofa with a tub of ice cream at the end of the odd bad day (because ice cream is amazing and you should be able to enjoy it), become something to worry about? We asked the experts.
What is emotional eating?
“Emotional eating is using food to reduce unpleasant mood, create a pleasant mood, or keep a positive mood going. Emotional eating is most commonly linked to unpleasant emotions such as stress, anxiety or depression,” says Professor Tracey Devonport, a psychologist at the University of Wolverhampton and a specialist in emotional eating.
It isn’t always associated with difficult emotional states.”Emotional eating is also associated with pleasant emotions. Common examples are the use of food during happy occasions such as weddings, birthdays, religious holidays and events,” she adds.
Is it bad to use food as a coping mechanism?
“We all emotionally eat to some extent,” says Devonport. “This is not usually a concern, and nor should it be.”
However, she says, if you’re emotionally eating to the extent that you feel it is out of control, causing weight gain or is happening in place of other more helpful ways of managing emotions, then it may be a problem.
Uxshely Chotai, who runs The Food Psychology Clinic, says: “In my experience, my clients that are emotional eaters will feel they have very little conscious control over their emotional eating. They will automatically respond to triggers such as boredom or sadness or stress by over-eating and will feel that they are unable to stop themselves.”
When might you emotionally eat?
How you use food as a coping mechanism will depend on what your emotional triggers are. “For someone who eats in response to stress may find that they eat more at work. Someone who eats when they’re bored or lonely may find that their binge eating tends to occur in the evenings,” says Chotai.
“When you are tired or stressed, your pre-frontal cortex (the part of your brain that allows you to make conscious decisions about what to eat) slows down and is less effective. The fact you are no longer able to make conscious or rational decisions about your food choices means you often feel out of control. Your subconscious mind then causes you to make poor food choices.”
For some people, food can provide a temporary relief from the stresses of a long, hectic day, it can give people something to look forward to at the end of it, as well as provide a bit of an escape from real life or feelings, and a way to put off dealing with them.
It can be difficult to break because there’s often a cycle – comfort eating can be followed by feelings of guilt, low self-worth or sadness, which makes someone likely to comfort eat again to try to fix or escape those feelings.
How to change the habit
The easiest way to recognise when you eat for emotional reasons, and understand why you do it, is to keep a simple diary. Note when you have a desire to eat, what you want to eat, and whether you feel hungry. It is very important to make a note of the emotions you are experiencing during the point at which you recognise this desire to eat too.
“Once you have identified the emotion that leads to eating, consider other ways you can manage that emotion,” says Devonport. “For example, you could manage stress by exercising, having a massage, playing with your children, grandchildren or pets, watching a pre-recorded TV programme, talking to someone, or listening to music.”
Also notice how you feel about yourself and/or your body during those times you reach for food when you’re not actually hungry – as there may be a connection there you hadn’t noticed before.
Finally, when you do eat, it’s vital to do it mindfully.
“This is important because emotional eating can be a result of not being conscious of what or why you are eating,” says Devonport. “Mindful eating involves bringing your full attention to the process of eating, to all the tastes, smells, thoughts, and feelings that arise during a meal. This can be helped by slowing down when eating, taking time to savour and enjoy your food.
“Try to eat away from distractions such as the television, mobile phone and internet so that you can really focus on eating. If relevant, have family meals around a dining table with a no technology rule.”
Read more – Binge eating disorder – causes, treatments and recovery.
