Understanding Emotional Eating

FitSugar — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:00:00 PDT

Food, the nourishment for our lives, can be loaded with issues. In our troubled relationships with food, emotional eating ranks at the top of the list. Understanding the phenomenon and recognizing the symptoms are great ways to start redefining your relationship with food. The first thing to understanding the problem is recognizing the traits of emotional eating.

Psychiatrist Roger Gold, an authority on this issue, outlined some characteristics of emotional eating at diet.com. They are:

Hunger that comes on suddenly: Physical hunger comes on slowly. Hunger from emotional eating often comes on quickly and suddenly.
Craving very specific foods: Cravings for specific, usually unhealthy foods is a sign of emotional eating. Often people like the rush they get from satisfying their cravings. That rush is fulfilling emotional hunger.
Urgent hunger: Physical hunger, unless you haven't eaten for a very long time, is usually pretty patient. It will wait for food. Emotional hunger demands to be satisfied immediately.

There are a couple more, so

Unconscious eating: When you're eating for physical reasons, you are usually mindful of what you're doing. If you catch yourself eating "just because," then it's likely you're eating for emotional reasons.
A sense of guilt after satisfying your hunger: Feeding your body what it needs is not something to feel guilty about. If you feel guilty after you eat, it's likely because part of you knows you're not eating just to satisfy physical hunger.

If these traits are prominent in your relationship with food, now might be a good time to try to break the habit. Pay attention to your emotional triggers by keeping a journal of what you eat, when, and why – trying to very specific if it was physiological hunger that lead you to eat or an emotional incident. Journaling will help you figure out your eating pattern. Source

Emotional Eating: How to Regain Control

FitSugar — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 10:00:01 PST

In a poll on emotional eating, 81 percent of FitSugar readers confessed that they eat as a reaction to anxiety, stress, or sadness. While I think that many of us can admit to doing this occasionally, a long history or consistent habit of emotional eating can be problematic. Instead of dealing with the issue at hand, emotional eaters mask their feelings - temporarily - with food. To get control over emotional eating, individuals first need to understand why it happens. Once you understand the characteristics of emotional eating, the next step is to regain control in your patterns. Here are some ways to regain control of your eating habits:

Figure out your triggers: Keep a food journal of what you eat, when you eat, and why you eat it (this one is the most difficult). Knowing your motivations for why you eat will make you conscious of your triggers, and you can begin to change your patterns.
Understand why you feel hungry: Physical hunger comes on slowly, and emotional hunger comes on quickly and is intense. Pay attention to how your stomach feels: is it rumbling and empty? Try waiting out the craving and see if the hunger subsides.
Find other ways to take care of yourself: It's important that you "feed" yourself in other ways aside from food. Take a walk, call a friend, or any other healthy activity that soothes you. Keep a list of alternatives to refer to when in the midst of a craving.

There are a few more tips, so

Banish junk food: Stock your pantry and fridge with healthy foods. If there are no cookies, chips, or ice cream in your house, the chances drop considerably that you will eat and overeat those foods.
Do eat: Make sure that you are eating a well-balanced diet with complex carbs, protein, and healthy fats. When you fill up on healthy foods, you will be better able to determine emotional hunger from physical hunger.
Be healthy: I know this one seems obvious, but take good care of yourself. Exercise regularly and get adequate sleep. Hunger, lack of sleep, and lack of exercise can make you moody, and when you're a cranky pants, it's harder to manage your cravings and combat the stresses that often lead you to reach for food for comfort.