Trigger warning: the topic of this article may be triggering.
Stress eating is when you try and eat all your problems away. It is when you feel tense, stressed, anxious, or emotional and you end up eating more than you can stomach. Relief comes first. Guilt comes after. Stress eating may feel good at first, but it has got detrimental effects in the long run, both mentally and physiologically.
What is it?
Stress eating is when people eat high calorie and high fat foods when they are stressed or overwhelmed. However, when people are stressed, their bodies store more food. Stress eating causes people to feel tired, lazy, and unhappy about their bodies.
Biologically speaking, stress typically stops appetite by triggering the secretion of epinephrine (hormone responsible for fight-or-flight response), and this places the desire to eat on hold. Though, if stress is persistent, things tend to differ. Another hormone called cortisol is released, and this hormone increases motivation and appetite, which enhances the desire and motivation to eat. If one’s stress levels decrease, cortisol decreases; otherwise, its levels stay up, and hence the desire to eat stays up, which leads to overeating.
It is important to note that the reason one tends to eat fatty and sugary food when stressed is because they do relieve stress levels. In fact, studies have shown this. These foods do counter stress, and that is why they are called “comfort food”. However, this form of coping with stress is a bad idea.
Why do we stress eat?
One of the main reasons we stress/emotionally eat is to relieve ourselves of stress and/or get rid of negative feelings. Unfortunately, this often does not work. It probably does take away your negative feelings for a short while, but then the feelings come back and the urge to eat comes back. You basically find yourself back at square one.
Health issues, financial troubles, family problems, or even relationship problems could all be the cause of your stress or negative feelings. In terms of gender, studies show that women find an out through food more so than men.
We seek food to fill this emptiness we feel inside. It tends to make us fuller– at least in the short run. There are many other reasons why we choose food –
- When we do not have social support and withdraw from it
- When we do not use other strategies to relieve our stress
- When we do not see the difference between physical and emotional hunger
- When we talk negatively to ourselves, and this causes us to emotionally eat
Alternatives healthier ways than stress eating include multiple things –
- If you feel alone, down, and find the urge to eat, make sure to call a friend
- If you feel stressed, rather than eating, take a walk
- Dance to your favorite song
- You could even try squeezing a stress ball
Stress eating is a never-ending cycle of eating to relieve your stress or get rid of your negative emotions, only to increase the stress due to the guilt you feel for eating too much. It is very often ineffective, hurtful, and would not make you feel any better.
Try out these alternatives for a change. You never know, maybe one of these techniques could work for you!