Are you an emotional eater?
By Nicola McAdam and Natalie McAdam
38% of adults admit to overeating or eating unhealthy foods due to stress, and this number continues to rise thanks to the pandemic.
It is really common to use food to exert control over our lives as people attach meaning to food. There is so much emotion attached to food; we use it to socialise, to celebrate, to reward ourselves or simply because we’re bored, so no wonder food has become an emotional tool.
Research has shown that even anticipating eating certain foods can generate dopamine - the feel good hormone (Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research). Certain foods such as cheese and chocolate can also cause a spike in serotonin - the happy hormone.
At times, and particularly of late, eating becomes a convenient distraction from having to face difficult emotions. We may be eating after a stressful event or because we are lonely or anxious. Eating gives us a short-term distraction and a spike in feel good hormones. These positive feelings, however, are short lived, and we end up feeling a huge amount of guilt or shame afterwards.
To determine whether or not emotional eating is a problem for you, consider your answers to the following:
How often do I eat when I’m not hungry?
At those times, am I eating to silence or ignore uncomfortable feelings?
Do I frequently eat to give myself something to do when I’m bored?
Would I rather eat after a stressful situation i.e. when I’m mad at my partner, than talk about the conflict with them?
If I’m feeling down, do I like to eat on my own (i.e., away from others) until I feel better?
If your answers reveal that you are doing more than your fair share of eating in response to emotion, there are several ways you can begin to work on changing this behaviour.
Emotional eating can become a vicious circle that becomes hard to break. Read on for tips on how to break this cycle:
Self-acceptance starts from within. It is not a dress size or a number on a scale. It starts with how much you believe in yourself. The way we talk to ourselves is key as our internal dialogue ultimately affects the way we behave, so negative thoughts can impact our lives in more ways than we realise. Perpetual negative thoughts can lead to self-defeating behaviours such as gorging on junk food and skipping your gym sessions.
Reframing those thoughts into positive ones, rather than relying on the old negative stories that we tell ourselves can play a pivotal role in healthy eating efforts. Reframing the thoughts and developing new behaviours is key to creating change, and forms a big part of the neuroscience based coaching work we do with our clients at MindVibes.
Our in house Nutritional Therapist Natalie McAdam believes that If you are experiencing physical cravings, this is because you’ve become addicted to certain foods that make you feel better in the moment. Foods such as sugar and wheat react negatively in a person’s system, leading to overeating. Sugar is one of the most addictive food substances there is (more addictive than cocaine, apparently!) Once sugar is ingested, the physical craving to eat more and more is extremely intense.
If you’re trying to avoid sugar, be mindful that many ‘low fat’ foods contain more sugar than ‘regular’ ones to provide enhanced flavour so don’t fall for the marketing. More beneficial and natural alternatives to sugar include xylitol or adding fruit for a natural sweet hit. Our taste buds renew themselves every two weeks so if you can ride the wave of sugar cravings it will become easier over time as your taste buds adjust to eating less sugary foods.
The good news is that if you’re prone to emotional eating, you can take steps to regain control of your habits and get back on track with your weight-management goals.
How to Regain Control
Though strong emotions can trigger cravings for food, you can take steps to control those cravings. To help stop emotional eating, try these suggestions:
Dump the Diet
Natalie is against diets as they do not work: “Diets are restrictive, boring, anti-social and deprive your body. If you starve your body of nutrients, your metabolism will slow down as it will think that there is a food shortage so will try and store more fat, so as soon as you begin to eat normally, the weight will pile on. The best way to maintain a healthy body image is to follow a sensible eating plan.”
Learn to recognise true hunger
Is your hunger physical or emotional? If you ate just a couple of hours ago and don’t have a rumbling stomach, you’re probably not really hungry. The hunger scale is a great tool to use here. Ask yourself how hungry you really are on a scale of 1 to 10 with one being absolutely ravenous and feeling light headed and shaky and 10 being in a food coma and unable to move. Ideally you want to aim for a three before eating.
Use distractions
Give the craving a few minutes to pass, try to distract yourself by making a phone call or having a nice bath whilst listening to a podcast.
Keep a food diary & know your triggers
For the next several days, write down what you eat, how much you eat, when you eat, how you’re feeling when you eat and how hungry you are when you eat. Over time, you may see patterns emerge that reveal negative eating patterns and triggers to avoid.
Look elsewhere for comfort
Instead of reaching for comfort food, take a walk, treat yourself to a movie, listen to music, read, or do something that emotionally fills you up in other ways. If you think that stress relating to a particular event is nudging you toward the fridge, try talking to someone about it to distract yourself. Plan enjoyable events to look forward to.
If stress is triggering you, try a yoga and meditation class. Yoga has been shown to significantly reduce stress levels and release dopamine.
Don’t keep unhealthy foods around
Avoid having an abundance of high-calorie comfort foods in the house. Plan meals in advance so that when you come home from work you have all of the ingredients you need to whip up a healthy meal.
Carry around a Munchie pack to stop you making bad snack choices:
Almonds, cashews or brazil nuts with an apple to balance blood sugars
Oatcakes with nut butter or hummus
Apple slices with nut butter
Bounce protein ball
Raw chocolate – e.g. OMG bars
Munchy seed pack
Eat a balanced diet
If you’re not getting enough calories to meet your energy needs, you may be more likely to give in to emotional eating. Eat at fairly regular times and don’t skip breakfast. When you eat fibre and protein, you’re more likely to feel fuller, for longer. Belly filling fibre and protein will also help to keep your blood sugar levels balanced and prevent spikes in the stress hormone, cortisol, which can lead to cravings. Try adding chia seeds to foods such as porridge or sprinkling it onto salads. Chia seed pudding is also a healthy treat as chia seeds are high in fibre, protein and essential fats and can help to keep hunger at bay.
Exercise regularly and get adequate rest
Your mood is more manageable, and your body can more effectively fight stress when it’s fit and well rested. A Lack of sleep causes a spike in ghrelin, the hunger hormone. Try to prioritise sleep: have a hot bath with Epsom salts an hour before bed to aid sleep. Or try a magnesium supplement or magnesium enriched cream before bed. Magnesium is known as natures tranquilliser and has incredible relaxation qualities.
If you give in to emotional eating, forgive yourself and start fresh the next day
Try to learn from the experience, and make a plan for how you can prevent it in the future. Focus on the positive changes you’re making in your eating habits.
Stock up on nutritional supplements
5HTP to increase serotonin. Serotonin is responsible for regulation of mood, pain, sleep and appetite and low levels in the brain have been linked to food cravings
B vitamins to turn food into energy
Zinc which is essential in appetite regulation
Vitamin D which contributes to the production of serotonin, which regulates mood and appetite. It is especially important to take in winter months when daylight is in short supply. Make sure it is in the best organic form Vitamin D3
Learn to love the skin you're in and feed yourself with the right nutrition
The MindVibes team are here to support you on your journey and our coaching clients are seeing life-changing results. If you’d like a chat with a Nutritional Therapist or to discuss personalised Health Coaching to meet your goals with an accountability partner, please drop us a line today at: hello@mindvibesglobal.com