Emotional eating. Why do we eat stress?

We all love to eat, but sometimes our love results in extra pounds. Especially for women. Although men are susceptible to this too. Under stress, when emotions overwhelm us, we begin to eat more actively, especially sweets and high-calorie foods. Therefore, it has long been known that food and stress are closely related. So why do people eat stress?

Emotional eating is defined as “the tendency to overeat in response to negative emotions, most commonly anxiety and irritability.” It is constantly associated with weight problems such as overweight and obesity. Additionally, overweight people have been found to demonstrate less effective coping skills in responding to negative emotions.

You can stop eating stress by learning about the causes and minimizing their impact.

Here you can “which will help you achieve your goal faster, eat less sweets and become more motivated, or sign up for a webinar and learn.

How do we find comfort in food?

Emotional eating is a simple and accessible method for unloading and relieving stress. You can have a quick snack right at work or at home, calm down and return to your business with renewed vigor. This is a safe method to quickly disconnect from problems and stop feeling. Get positive emotions and drown out the feelings inside.

Emotional eating leads to gaining extra pounds. Anyone, thin, normal or overweight, can be predisposed to overeating, while compensating for excess calories with physical activity, fasting days or diets. This “I’ll eat cake now and go to strength training tomorrow” method is precisely a sign of emotional overeating and can perpetuate it for a long time. At first it seems that this is logical and there is nothing wrong with this lifestyle. But there is still a negative impact. You will use food as the main source of stress relief and forget about other ways, such as supporting loved ones or creative activities. After all, food is always at hand and you don’t need to make any effort.

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Pure psychology

Natalya Kozhina, AiF.ru: Ekaterina, how do people become food addicts?

Ekaterina Mirimanova: People clearly do not become foodaholics because of a good life: usually a person experiences some kind of trauma in the past or present, and he does not know how to resist what happened, and as a result, he simply eats away at his problems. By and large, if you are satisfied with your life, everything is fine with your work and in your personal relationships, then you will not have the desire to come to the kitchen at 12 o’clock at night and start eating, destroying the contents of the refrigerator.

— Is excess weight an indicator that you are an eater?

- Undoubtedly. If you are overweight, you are a foodaholic. All people understand this on a subconscious level, but not everyone wants to admit it and think about the problems that led them to extra pounds. I’ll explain with an example: I have a colleague, we once discussed the importance of the psychological component in losing weight. The girl is plump, but at the same time she told me that she doesn’t have any problems in life. After some time, I found out that she had been dating a man for seven years, but two years ago they broke up, but they continue to live together because they have a common apartment on credit for 300,000 euros. Here are the psychological problems that the person himself denies.

How to recognize emotional overeating from physical need?

Signs of physical hunger:

• hunger manifests itself in the stomach,
• feeling of emptiness and rumbling in the stomach,
• mental and physical strength decreases,
• weakness and irritability appear,
• After eating food, hunger disappears.

Signs of emotional eating:

• the desire to eat appears when something bad happens.
• I want to eat something unhealthy, fatty or sweet instead of lunch or after a meal,
• You can’t get enough of a regular portion, you eat more, you constantly snack.

Western culture and the psychology of food perception

Indeed, nowhere is food more of a cult than in Western civilization. Food is perceived not just as nutrition for the body, but as:

• awards;
• communication;
• status;
• cultural code;
• belonging to a group.

It is noticeable that food, through this perception, from the 1st stage of the basic need “physiology” (satisfaction of hunger, thirst, sexual need, etc.) climbs higher and already claims to be both the 2nd “need for safety” and the 3rd -th “need for love and recognition, belonging to a social group”, and even at the 4th stage “need for respect and approval” of Maslow’s pyramid.

The West is characterized by an attitude towards food as a reward: “treat yourself to tasty treats”, “I love this, but I don’t like that”, “let’s throw a party”, etc. The habit of instilling in children a special attitude towards food:

• indulge in sweets;
• reward food for good behavior and actions;
• choose your favorite and least favorite foods;
• show care and attention through feeding, etc.

an attitude towards food as a pleasure in people brought up in the Western cultural code, including in Russia.

, replacing higher needs for safety, love and respect with food.

But it’s hard to think differently when you grew up in a culture where the question “Have you eaten?” equals “I am interested in you, I care about you, and these words are my attention.”

How does emotional eating work?

1. Trigger or pain point. This could be an event or action that creates a stressful situation or emotional tension (bad news, depression, quarrel, illness).
2. The desire to get rid of stress, relieve tension. You know exactly what you want to eat. It will be cake, hamburger, candy, pizza, ice cream.
3. Process. You choose food, order or go to the store, devour it quickly and confidently.
4. Satisfaction from the food eaten. You feel full, a full stomach and even a little discomfort. At this stage, the hormone dopamine is released, which brings satisfaction and happiness.
5. Regret. You realize that you have eaten too much. To calm yourself down and drown out the shame, you plan not to eat in the evening or go to a tough workout. Such compensation for what you eat only exacerbates the craving for overeating. Since you know in advance that the extra piece of cake can always be worked off later.

2.Bad mood

Food, and especially sweets, quickly lifts your mood. Someone has upset you, or you’re stuck at work, which means you need to eat a chocolate bar or a bun. Remember: these are fast carbohydrates, their effect is too fleeting. Very soon you will again feel sad, tired and need to buy candy again.

Solution: learn to eat well. Dishes, serving, serving, rather than the food itself, will lift your spirits. Eat in small portions, chew slowly - savor, enjoy. So you will eat less and bring yourself more joy.

Also, look for other ways to cheer yourself up.

Why is it important to combat emotional eating?

• Improve your health. You will feel lightness in your body, your skin will be cleared of acne and rashes.
• You will start losing weight faster. Proper nutrition speeds up metabolism and burns excess fat in the body.
• You will feel a surge of energy. Eating healthy food and getting good sleep will strengthen your mitochondria, which will work more efficiently. Even with reduced calories in a healthy diet.
• You will look younger and healthier. When eating fast food, free radicals are produced, which worsen the condition and tone of the skin.
• The brain will work faster. With a stable overeating of fatty or sweet foods, mitochondria lose efficiency. Clarity disappears and drowsiness appears, it is difficult to concentrate, think and create something new.
• Emotional stability will appear. When you realize what exactly your problems are and solve them, you will feel calm and satisfied.

To get rid of emotional eating, you must first work through your psychological state. Understand what worries you and prevents you from living fully. Take a free online Stress Management course to learn how to cope with stress reactions. From the course you will learn how to work with emotional burnout. What to do under time pressure and how to get out of stress when communicating with clients or bosses. How to identify the causes of stress and eliminate them in a timely manner. The online course will help you develop your own strategy for responding to stressful situations. After training, you will identify strengths and weaknesses, learn to control negative emotions and work for your own pleasure.

Causes of stress eating

There is usually not one reason, there may be several. Most often, they “help” each other to make us fuller.

Eating habits greatly influence stress eating

A person follows the eating habits laid down in his parental family.

The habit of eating stress comes from there. A person takes on the behavior model that his mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, etc. had. If your family eats stress with fatty, sweet foods and baked goods, then this will be familiar and normal for you too. Your reactions follow the beaten path. If it is customary in your family to eat a lot, then you, most likely, will eat a lot, first succumbing to persuasion: “eat a spoon for mom,” “eat a spoon for dad,” and then repeating after your relatives.

We were taught to eat this way, food and stress are connected among our relatives, we follow traditions and habits, and as a result, we unknowingly make our lives worse. Many generations of people react this way to overexertion and stress. Read more in the article about two studies of eating behavior. This is sometimes difficult to change, but you can understand and change your diet.

Hormones

Dopamine
When your emotional state changes, stress, lack of sleep, fatigue, the level of hormones changes. Cortisol regulates carbohydrate metabolism in our body and is involved in the development of stressful situations. Cortisol is released by the adrenal glands during times of stress. It helps increase motivation in general, including food motivation. Thanks to it, glucose synthesis is enhanced, and its breakdown in muscles is minimized. And now people are already reaching for a cake, candy or bun and eating stress and negativity. Sweet foods bring taste pleasure and also help release the hormones serotonin and dopamine . The largest amounts of these hormones are released during/after eating and sex. And they improve our mood, and our mood, the perception of the world and people around us. Therefore, many overweight people are cheerful, but only after they eat.

Cortisol has a specific daily rhythm. The largest amount is released at night in the early morning. Therefore, if you do not have the right daily routine, this can also affect excess weight and stress eating. Elevated cortisol levels reduce the release of corticoliberin peptin, which regulates mental functions. As a result of their actions, people become fatter, and fat people cope worse with stress. By the way, the decay period of cortisol is about 60 minutes. So wait an hour after a stressful situation, and you won't be as hungry anymore. But if the stress is permanent, then its level may not drop quickly. If you find it difficult to cope with stress yourself, read about relaxation techniques and tapping, they will quickly help you.

But the most interesting thing is that it is these bad habits that lead to even worse health and more overeating. If you do not consume (or practically do not consume) vegetables and fruits, then the biochemistry of the brain changes.

And this leads to the appearance of depression. In particular, this was proven by scientists who published studies in Fainaidea. This is a circular dependency. We eat more sweets and starchy foods, and then we want even more sweets and starchy foods. Just start eating more vegetables and fruits. Nutritionists recommend eating more vegetables and fruits raw, and not as part of some dishes. And you can start with one fruit or a handful of berries a day.

The so-called female sex hormones also provoke fat accumulation, mood changes and provoke changes in diet. Especially during the period of PMS in women and men abusing beer. Read more about mood hormones.

Genetics

The tendency to eat stress is transmitted not only socially, but also genetically. True, it is not very strong if it is not supported by the social.

If your parents had poor emotional control, then perhaps their parents and grandparents did the same. The tendency to react in a certain way to emotional states depends on your temperament. Temperament is given to us from birth, and the characteristics of temperament are inherited from our parents.

The level of the body's hormonal levels depends on the functioning of the internal organs: endocrine cells secrete hormones, nervous system cells biologically active substances, hormones react with intracellular enzymes, the nervous system transmits a return signal, and the brain controls communication. That is, it turns out that the whole organism is involved in this process. And the work of every organ is important.

Harvard researchers report that work stress and other types of problems are strongly correlated with weight gain, but more so in those who were overweight at the beginning of the study period. One study concluded: Overweight people have elevated insulin levels and stress-related weight gain, and this is more likely to occur in the presence of high insulin. That is, people who eat stress are predisposed to overeating and diabetes. And if you don’t get rid of this habit (even at normal weight), then most likely you will get them.

Features of the life of ancestors

Have you ever thought that your body is your enemy? It doesn't intentionally make you stress eater. Our brain considers calories to be a scarce resource necessary for survival . And the brain is a lazy bastard, it doesn’t want to waste what it thinks is a valuable resource and wants to get it “for free.” And this is justified; once upon a time it was really difficult to get calories. You had to go hunting, risking your life, throw a spear at an animal and still get hit. Bring it home without being taken away by another predator. And only then eat it. Or walk through the forest looking for something to eat that is high in calories, so that you don’t have to look for food for 6 hours, wasting a rare resource—calories. When you are stressed, your body often thinks that you may not be able to continue to effectively supply it with calories. This often happens after going on a diet. Here you eat up the stress that you yourself have created for your body. Therefore, strict diets do not give anything in the long term if you do not normalize your diet.

It happens that in a stressful situation the brain decides to save calories. Well, just in case. What if you can’t hunt and get food? Long walk, fast run? Look for eggs, small mammals, stalk animals and throw a spear? After all, you feel bad from stress right now. How will you get food? Your brain takes care of you.

Therefore, your brain simply does not want to get rid of the habit of overeating and wants to get extra calories! He resists the loss of an important resource as best he can. It is important to understand this before you start fighting excess weight and the habit of stress eating. Our body is not our enemy, it’s just that many people do not approach nutrition very correctly, as a result of which many people eat stress and negativity. Read about foods that are good for the brain and the whole body.

4 Digestion

Our health also depends on how our digestive tract works. If it doesn't work quite right, then our eating habits may change. Under stress, especially fear, the body works differently. Strong emotions can lead to changes in digestive functions .

Numerous studies (many of them on animals) have shown that physical or emotional experiences increase the consumption of foods high in fat and sugar. High cortisol levels combined with high insulin levels may be the cause.

People eat stress in the same way. Therefore, it is worth paying attention to calming methods, meditation, and sedatives.

In addition, digestion depends on the bacteria that inhabit our gastrointestinal tract. Due to the fact that we constantly experience stress, our body produces a protein similar to the hormone leptin. Therefore, we get an immune failure. As a result, we realize that we are still hungry, but in reality we are no longer hungry. This leptin is one of the “provocateurs” of the development of diabetes. If you are hungry after you have already eaten, eat an apple or a plate of cabbage.

In addition to this hormone, oxytocin is responsible for the feeling of satiety. It ensures the transmission of signals between neurons in different parts of the brain. The cells in these areas must be sensitive to oxytocin, and sensitivity to this neurotransmitter is encoded by certain genes.

Candidate of Biological Sciences G.N. Grossman:

5 Loneliness

Lonely people experience stress all the time. Even if they chose this lifestyle intentionally. Man is a social being and must communicate with others. In addition, with constant loneliness, a person does not really want to cook his own food, and he prefers fast food, which naturally affects weight.

Stress hormones when lonely are constantly released, so a lonely person constantly wants to pamper himself with something. It is almost impossible to stop just eating stress if you are alone. To do this, you need to do serious psychological and physiological work on yourself. And a psychologist and/or nutritionist will help you do this much faster.

addictive

If you abuse fatty and sweet foods every day, then you cannot switch to a normal diet on your own. Some even lose a little weight and then return to their weight after a year, or even after 5-6 years. The fact is that when you start a diet, you don’t get the pleasure from food that you had before.

Food, especially food that is highly palatable and energy-dense, can be “addictive,” similar to drug abuse.

This is consistent with the fact that drugs and drugs have powerful reinforcing effects—due in part to increasing dopamine in the limbic system—which, under certain circumstances or in vulnerable individuals, can overwhelm the brain's control mechanisms. In particular, this is evidenced by the study of Volkov, Wong and Fowler. Some people who eat stress are like drug addicts. When we eat, the same parts of the brain are activated as when we use drugs (but this is usually less active). But if this is constantly provoked, addiction will arise. Therefore, it is quite difficult for some to get rid of this habit themselves. People train themselves to eat this way and the body obeys. The result is addiction!

Plus, food scientists are trying to keep us coming back to unhealthy foods again and again. They know our tastes, how our brain works, perception, and based on this they create products with a certain color, taste, shape, texture. This is according to food and eating behavior researcher Stephen Witherly, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for food research. You can read about this in the article Unhealthy Food. Why are we so drawn to her?

Diet correction

To stop harming your health, you don't have to go on a strict diet. You just need to adjust your diet in accordance with the following recommendations:

1. Food should be taken every three hours. This will help maintain glucose levels and eliminate hunger.
2. If, during a tense situation, you have a strong desire to eat something, you need to replace the food with water. Liquid creates a feeling of fullness. It is recommended to drink natural juices and mineral water. Green and chamomile teas are beneficial.

This is interesting! Psychologists recommend eating with your left hand (for right-handers). After 2-3 days, there will be no trace left of the habit of overeating.

1. It is important to maintain the level of vitamin D. It promotes better absorption of microelements and is found in cottage cheese, kefir, oatmeal, and seafood.
2. It is worth including fruits, vegetables, garlic, bananas and fatty fish in your diet. They increase the production of serotonin, a pleasure hormone that improves mood and prevents depression.
3. During periods of nervous tension, you need to lean on foods rich in B vitamins and magnesium. We are talking about buckwheat, nuts, apples, legumes and rye bread.
4. You should forget about simple carbohydrates. The euphoric effect of sucrose causes a strong addiction to sweets. Each time it becomes more and more difficult to give up cookies, sweets and ice cream.
5. Nutritionists recommend creating a meal schedule and menu for every day. Nutritious meals should be consumed in the first half of the day.

Important! Under no circumstances should you go hungry. Chronic malnutrition can cause serious mental illness!

As for children's overeating during stress, it is considered very dangerous for the child. The load on the digestive organs is the cause of hormonal imbalance. Pathological changes can ruin your health for life. Therefore, it is important to monitor the emotional state and diet of your child.

5.Love expressed in treats

Sometimes an unhealthy relationship with food is a consequence of your relationship with your mother. First, the mother feeds the baby, and feeding brings pleasure and gives a feeling of security.

Then mother and grandmother express their love and care through food: “I baked it especially for you,” “finish it, don’t upset me.” A stable connection is formed in the head: “food equals peace, tranquility, safety.”

Solution: learn to feel the love of loved ones through their attitude, comfort through self-care, learn to relax and rest without the help of food.

Practical advice

There are a number of some effective methods for dealing with emotional stress without eating:

1. Sports and physical activity trigger the breakdown of complex carbohydrates and promote the production of endorphins. Active activities will relieve sadness and help you find a beautiful body. A short jog is enough, ideally you need to go to the gym regularly.
2. It is recommended to take a cool shower daily. It gives a boost of energy and improves mental state due to its antidepressant effect.
3. You can normalize the functioning of the nervous system through communication on distant topics. They advise you to pour out your soul to a friend or on a forum, or consult a psychologist.

Interesting! The brain perceives the red hue as a stop signal. Therefore, it is worth using a plate, apron and mugs of this color in the kitchen. According to research results, it was found that black and blue dishes also prevent overeating.

1. You need to develop the habit of smiling more often. This will allow your brain to slowly and surely produce serotonin. The person will become less sensitive to stressful situations.
2. To give vent to your emotions, you need to go to a karaoke bar and have fun. Loud singing even relieves chronic depression.
3. Aromatic oils are great for stress relief. They can be added to the bath. Scents of orange, pine, chamomile and lavender are suitable.

If a person is easily stressed, he should learn relaxation and calming techniques.

Quitting the habit of “eating emotions”: “before” and “after”

How will life change after eradicating the habit of dealing with stress in a “tasty” way? Literally beyond recognition.

BEFORE	AFTER
Before you get rid of this form of addiction, the chances of getting a bunch of troubles (damaged figure, health problems) will be high.	Knowing that you are in control of the situation by not allowing yourself to become emotionally unhinged or indulge your weaknesses will give you confidence in your abilities and help you cope with a difficult situation.
The downside of such culinary “consolations” is always dissatisfaction with oneself. Remorse will certainly follow short-lived pleasure.	Feelings of guilt about food intemperance will not darken your mood.
By accustoming oneself not to solve, but to “seize” problems, a person loses control over his life, agreeing to the usual philistine vegetation.	Having adjusted this issue, you will be in control of the situation, and not she will be in control of you.

4. The desire to hide, to protect yourself

Excess weight, which sometimes occurs precisely as a result of overeating, may have so-called secondary benefits. If a woman subconsciously avoids men, then the extra pounds become a kind of barrier that reliably protects her boundaries.

This behavior may be the result of sexual abuse or childhood negative attitudes about sexuality. For example, the mother was terrified that her daughter would “bring it in the hem,” and the father did not mince words, commenting on the teenager’s revealing, in his opinion, clothes. And he reacted instantly, protecting himself from threats associated with sex and relationships by gaining weight. And today, food helps us maintain the physical shape that keeps us safe...

Solution: learn to build boundaries when communicating with men, work on the topic of safety. Allow yourself to be attractive by untying the knots in your head that “sexy means provocative,” “femininity equals provocation.”

Anxiety

One of the main emotions that we eat. Anxiety is a product of life in conditions of constant competition and a high need to get the best. People with eating disorders often experience excessive, uncontrollable anxiety. It is the feeling of anxiety that most often causes eating breakdowns. It prevents you from listening to yourself, choosing what you want, and disrupts contact with yourself.

To stop eating anxiety, you first need to stop prohibiting yourself... from eating anxiety or punishing yourself for it. It's important that you note - in your diary, in your head, in front of the mirror - “I eat because I'm nervous, I'm worried. Food helps me cope with anxiety and relax. Even if this is a hundred thousand times wrong, I will not blame myself for it. This is the only effective way that I know so far. Now it’s important for me to calm down my anxiety and think about what to do next.”

Today is sad. Until then, don’t fall asleep. Now it’s nervous. Ironically, when we give ourselves permission to worry, and stop suppressing our anxiety, we find that we worry less. Focus on the state of anxiety instead of trying to suppress it: What happens to my body when I feel anxious? In what parts of the body does anxiety “settle”? How would you describe your feeling of anxiety right now - what color is it (yellow? greenish?), what texture (shaggy, smooth?). Maybe what does it taste like?

Having allowed yourself to feel anxious, ask yourself – the anxiety attack that is happening to me right now – what is it about? What is he trying to tell me? Why is it needed? This can be difficult to understand, but sometimes this technique helps: imagine that you are a roe deer or other wild animal in the forest. And everyone who surrounds you, and everything that surrounds you, also lives in this forest. Why do you need this anxiety attack, how does it help you survive, what does it protect you from, save you, protect you from?