What’s there to do about it?

By now, you should, through reading the earlier blog posts, know that we are all at some point emotional eaters.  What’s there to do about it?  Here are a few things that may help.

1)  Clean out the junk!

As always, it’s a good idea to do a little “spring cleaning”.  At some point we all accumulate impulse purchases of unhealthy food.  Take a look around the kitchen and get rid of any sort of temptations.

2)   Keep a food journal

It can be very helpful to keep both an emotional and food journal.  Take a few days out of the week and one weekend day to keep tabs on your food intake and how it relates to emotions.  If you have a short memory, like myself, it is helpful to right down your food when you are eating.  Think about how you are feeling when or right before eating.  Are you happy, stressed, tired or content?  It may be also be helpful to go back at the end of the day and recap your food intake and your emotions.

3)   Graph

Ok, you don’t actually have to make a graph, but it’s a good idea to review your food journal to see if you find common connections between food and emotions. One of my readers commented that they like greasy/oily foods when stressed.  I on the other hand go for the sweets - rocky road ice cream! 

4)   Substitute

Now that you know you are a salt addict or sugar addict during emotional times you can begin to find substitutes for those unhealthy cravings.  For example, when I’ve had a bad day and am craving something sweet and naughty like ice cream, I treat myself to orange juice.  I know it doesn’t sound as fun, but I get the the sweet, sugar that I would and to me juice is an indulgent treat! 

Next week I’ll give you some foods to consume to try to alleviate some of the stress in your life.  Until then, happy eating!

Still Not Convinced?

Still not convinced we are all emotional eaters?  You may be thinking that emotional eating isn’t a problem for you because your of normal weight or maybe even underweight. 

In Eating Behaviors, a peer-reviewed scientific journal intersting research information was published on the different emotional eating styles of overweight, underweight and normal weight individuals.  In a short, it was noted that those considered overweight ate more when they experienced negative emotions such as sadness, boredom and anger.  While the underweight group ate less during those same emotional feelings. This led researches to believe this may be in fact why this group is underweight.  The underweight group reported eating more during positive situations or situations such as partaking in a hobby, falling in love or hearing good news.  

You can find the full article here: http://www.sciencedirect.com.er.lib.k-state.edu/science/article/pii/S1471015302001009

Are You an Emotional Eater Quiz: 

http://www.everydayhealth.com/diet-nutrition/food-mood/quiz-emotional-eater/questions.aspx

WARNING: Severe Emotional Eating Area!

Ok, I have to admit I didn’t even bother to keep track of my emotional eating this week.  Family drama, work drama, spending a week working on a case study assignment that was nearly done and then finding it “missing” Thursday night.  You get the idea; my week was full of emotional eating.  Chinese food, seafood salad, Girl Scout Cookies…

A few posts ago I wrote about the hormone cortisol and how it relates to emotional eating.  This week I found an interesting article on another hormone, leptin.  Leptin is a protein hormone that acts as our energy thermostat; it regulates energy expenditure and energy intake.  Researches are seeing that upon significant weight loss leptin levels drop signaling to the brain that it needs more food.  On the contrary, when levels of leptin are higher the areas of the brain that make rational decisions are more active than those making emotional decisions.  Keep in mind, however, that at some point the body can become leptin resistant as seen with cases of obesity, hypertension, and heart failure and after myocardial infarction.

Check out this article and make sure to read the comments.  Great food for thought (pun intended)!

 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123894109

If interested in more information regarding resistance to leptin cut and paste this link: 

http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/108/6/644.full

"I am not a glutton - I am an explorer of food." 

Erma Bobeck

Are you an Emotional Eater? (Hint: YES!)

Have you ever felt the following emotions? 

Happy

Excited

Sad

Anxious

Doubt

Lonely

Bored

Are you overweight, underweight or do you fall into the normal weight range?

Chances are at some point in your life you’ve fallen to emotional eating.  You may not have even known that your eating pattern was due to emotions. 

In my opinion we are all emotional eaters.  Emotions don’t judge, overweight , normal weight or even underweight individuals can all indulge in emotional eating from time to time.  Remember, emotions don't always have to be negative to to bring about emotional eating.    

I encourage each of you to keep an emotional eating log for a few days and come back to report what you’ve found.  To keep an emotional eating log you will need paper, pen and a little bit of time to think about your responses to emotions.  I suggest to even note when you don't eat - you may be an emotional under eater.  Also, note times you went for the cookies, but instead made a positive choice. Compiling all of this information will help you highlight your strengths and weaknesses.

See you back here next week to compare emotional eating habits! 

You can't just eat good food. You've got to talk about it too. And you've got to talk about it to somebody who understands that kind of food.” 

― Kurt Vonnegut

CONFESSIONS OF AN EMOTIONAL EATER

“I was in a small town where I didn't know anyone so I would sit down in my room and just eat and eat because I didn't have anything else to do and I was always really sad because I thought I was just allowing my life to waste away.  That would make me sad and eat more!!”

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What is emotional eating?  Emotional eating is essentially the act of falsely controlling your emotions (fear, guilt, disgust, stress, etc...) through the act of eating.  Most often we are unaware that we are eating to fill a void or consuming certain foods to make ourselves feel better.  In fact, there are certain foods that can certainly trigger chemicals or chemicals in our brain that can trigger a "need" to eat more to feel better. 

Lately there has been a lot of information about Cortisol in health and science related news.  Cortisol is a hormone that is secreted by the adrenal glands.  Cortisol, among other things, can assist in maintaining blood pressure, stimulate metabolism and stimulate insulin.  Cortisol is also released during stress.  When we get stressed our body goes into a so-called “fight or flight” response and releases additional cortisol. When cortisol is released due to this stress it sends a signal to our brain essentially saying, "we better load up on carbs and fats because it’s about to get a little crazy."   The desire to consume carbohydrates and fats is our body's way of ensuring that we have the energy to handle the current stress. 

The problem with this carb and fat loading to fight stress is that we are usually not actually fighting or “flighting” during these stressful times.  In short, we are not burning the extra calories we are consuming; we are stockpiling them as fat.  The other problem is that our body's and minds fall into repetitive behaviors. We continue to indulge in these feel good carbohydrates and fats when our body doesn't actually need them.  We become prisoners of our emotions.    

Read this interesting article on the possible link between Cortisol and weight gain:

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=53304

 "A dry crust eaten in peace is better than a great feast with strife."

Proverbs 17

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