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March 12, 2024

Dietitian shares how to take control of emotional eating

Filed under: Fitness — Tags: — admin @ 4:03 am

Whether it’s downing a packet of Tim Tams after an especially stressful day. Or, using wine as a way to get through another relentless evening with the family.

Or, taking a trip to buy a treat from the local convenience to help you “feel better”, chances are you are using food to distract from or soothe your emotions.

While there is nothing wrong with enjoying a sweet treat or a glass of wine as a source of pleasure when the days are long, when you find yourself relying on, or overeating high calorie, ultra-processed foods regularly to make it through the day – it is a sign that emotional eating may be doing more harm than good.

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Eating sweet beans at work

What is emotional eating?

Emotional eating is a predisposition to eat in response to negative emotions, where eating a particular food is used as an unhealthy coping mechanism.

Emotional eating appears to be extremely common, with it estimated that 30-40 per cent of women use food to soothe or distract themselves from their emotions.

What causes emotional, eating?

Emotional eating may evolve for a number of reasons, and may be a learnt behaviour, even programmed in early childhood. It is also a habit that develops and becomes more firmly entrenched over time.

In the case of learnt or even subconscious programming, what may have started as a bowl of ice-cream or a treat whenever something unsavoury happened as a child, may now have become a subconscious search for sweet food whenever you are experiencing an uncomfortable emotion.

Here, the brain associates consuming a particular food with feeling better programming the brain to make a habit of seeking comfort in food. Sometimes taking the time to reflect on the correlation between self-soothing with food and early childhood experience is enough to bring this programming to one’s consciousness. This awareness can help one take control of the habit and make more mindful food choices. 

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Close-up of a woman hand pouring wine into a glass. Female waiter serving red wine in a winery.

In the case of habits that have formed over time, human beings do what is familiar. This means if you start to relax after a stressful day with a glass or two of wine, over time you are likely to continue this habit, every day, stressed or not.

How to take control of emotional eating?

Ultimately, the key to taking control of emotional eating, and overeating, is to learn a new way to self soothe – other than eating poor quality foods.

Taking the time to identify the emotion that you are feeling, and sitting with the discomfort of it, rather than distracting with food is the first step. Initially this may feel terribly unfordable, but as you learn to name how you are feeling, and allow yourself to feel angry, sad, disappointed or annoyed it will become easier over time. Journaling these emotions, talking about them with a friend, having a good cry, or getting a massage are all non-food ways to practice sitting with, and processing these emotions rather than using food as a distraction.

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Eating pizza at night. Close-up

Change your environment

Perhaps one of the most powerful ways to keep emotional eating under control is to make it harder to do – if there are not a lot of snacks or drinks in the house to overeat, it becomes much harder to self soothe with poor quality food.

For this reason, limiting the amount of bad food you have available will go a long way in preventing emotional overeating as a regular bad habit you have established, and create the space and time to sit with an uncomfortable emotion and self soothe in a non-food related way.

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When is emotional eating an issue?

Emotional eating is an issue when it is causing you psychological distress; when it is resulting in the overconsumption of poor quality, ultra-processed foods, which in turn may be sabotaging your underlying health goals.

A general feeling of “being out of control” may indicate it is worth taking active steps to understand the underlying drivers of your emotional eating, and seek out professional help if necessary to get it under control.

Support is available from the Butterfly National Helpline on 1800 33 4673.

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