Growing up, we often learn to associate food with comfort, a sensual physical experience that can always be depended on to provide immediate pleasure. This starts off very innocently. As babies, our moms would feed us milk to comfort our cries. As children, our dads would reward us with candy treats and cola for doing chores. Once we become teenagers and later on adults, this habit of “comfort food” proceeds and, in some cases, becomes even more persistent. Emotional eating, or comfort eating, has proven to be one of the easiest ways for most adults to relieve their stress after a long day at work or even after a breakup. For some, it is an occasional habit. However, for many others, it is a daily one. For that, emotional eating can turn into something dangerous that could possibly harm our health.
Emotional Eating
Because food can temporarily help soothe or distract us, emotional eating may become a conditioned response to elevated stress or difficult emotions. “Eating our emotions away” may eventually turn into a slippery slope and that is because food is supposed to nourish our bodies instead of being used to avoid certain feelings or situations. Studies have shown that people who usually indulge in big amounts of unhealthy foods to comfort their negative emotional state also tend to overeat when they are experiencing a positive emotional state. That is a result of the conditioning of the brain – any sort of emotional state becomes directly associated with food and eating.
Emotional eating is known to begin in childhood, peak in adolescence, and carry into adulthood. This learned pattern of eating can become problematic and trigger an unhealthy relationship with food. More importantly, in severe cases, this type of eating pattern can also lead to eating disorders such as binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa. For that, parents should always keep an eye out for their children and their relationship with what they eat and how they eat it. Although emotional eating is not considered an eating disorder, it is a characteristic of disordered eating and could possibly lead to binge eating, also known as compulsive overeating, and bulimia, also known as binging and purging.
Binge Eating Disorder
It is characterized by –
- Eating larger than normal amounts of food, at least twice a week for a period of 6 months
- Isolated food consumption
- Rapid food consumption
- Inability to control how much is consumed
- Continuing to eat despite feeling full
- Feelings of disgust, guilt, and shame over how much has been consumed after binging episode is over
Bulimia Nervosa
It is characterized by –
- Eating larger than normal amounts of food followed by episodes of purging, at least twice a week for a period of 6 months
- Purging could come in many forms including excessive exercise, self-induced vomiting, laxative or diuretic use, or the use of diet pills
- Isolated food consumption
- Rapid food consumption
- Inability to control how much is consumed
- Continuing to eat despite feeling full
- Feelings of disgust, guilt, and shame over binging and purging once the episode is over
Basically, both disorders experience the same kind of emotions and feelings.
In conclusion, it is important to develop a routine with meals which helps us indicate physical hunger and fullness cues. Moreover, it is also vital to work on self-monitoring and to be attentive to and mindful of your body, your food, and your feelings. Dietitians and therapists can guide you and help you find ways to monitor behaviors, thoughts, and feelings regarding food and you can, with their help, develop a better relationship with food. Emotional hunger and physical hunger are not the same thing, so you need to be mindful of how your body and mind respond to each of those things. For example, are you eating because you are bored, upset, stressed or because you are genuinely hungry?
Lastly, I would like to add that parents also need to be mindful of their eating behaviors and their attitude towards food in front of their children. As we mentioned above, emotional eating is a pattern that gets taught throughout childhood and the way children grow up around food and meals really affects how they view food emotionally. Children need to be raised in a safe environment where food is viewed as our source of life and health, so that it does not end up being our enemy when we grow older.