Food is a common part of our daily lives and all the changes we go through in life. The most common emotions we feel are joy, sadness, anger, and fear. These emotions can affect what, when, and how we eat if we aren’t aware of them. We are all equipped to eat when we feel hungry and are naturally able to know what food to give our bodies. Although sometimes, we can eat when we have negative or heightened emotions, this is called emotional eating.
Emotional Eating
Everyone has foods they eat for comfort. Such as grandma’s famous spaghetti and meatballs, chicken noodle soup your mom made when you were sick, or fish sticks you ate as a snack after school. Comfort foods bring us good memories and fill us with nostalgic feelings.
At times, food can be used as a coping method when stressed, angry, or sad. For example, when work is busy, sometimes we choose to skip lunch to keep up with deadlines, then go home to indulge in the urge to eat more. This results from going through overwhelming stress.
Emotional eating can start from stress, guilt, sadness, or loneliness. When food is used to reward ourselves or to forget about how we really feel, it can make us feel worse. But emotionally eating doesn’t fix problems of the heart and mind. So, we need ways to cope with heightened emotions that aren’t connected to food.
It takes time to understand your emotional eating habits with some practice as well as support from others. These are some common, helpful ways for you to eat more mindfully:
- keeping a journal and food diary
- learning to understand your emotions and thoughts
- checking in with your body’s hunger
Physical Hunger vs. Emotional Hunger
Do you listen to the differences between physical hunger and emotional hunger? Physical hunger is when your body needs energy from food and emotional hunger is when heightened emotions lead to food cravings.
Physical hunger takes some time to build up hours after eating a previous meal. You can feel an empty sensation in the stomach, noticeable when your stomach growls, you get tired, or feel irritable. Then, it goes away when you feel satisfied or full after eating.
Emotional hunger happens more suddenly, and can be related to a specific mood. Emotional hunger can result in craving a certain food. It can also lead to eating more than you need and doesn’t stop when you’re full. That can lead to guilt, shame, or regret. It happens because food is used as a temporary fix for unresolved emotions.
Listening to Your Cues
The best way to know if you’re an emotional eater is to be aware of any feelings when you start feeling hungry, whether it’s physical or emotional. It is also good to pay attention to behaviors or habits you have around certain foods. One example is feeling out of control over how much you eat a specific food or when you eat food as a coping method.
It is important to trust your body's hunger cues, especially physical ones.
Listening to your body’s cues helps get your body the fuel it needs. You’ll be in tune with the body’s rhythm, improve body positivity and self-esteem, and prevent physical discomfort that occurs with hunger. Take a pause to check in with your body throughout the day, eat slow to thoroughly chew food, and pick up a mindful hobby to avoid thinking about food a lot.
Shifting Your Perspective
If you’re not used to listening to hunger cues nor fully aware of your physical hunger cues, first start by checking in with your body and mind every few hours, ask yourself how you’re feeling, and what level your hunger is at.
Feeling extremely hungry may cause you to feel unwell and weak, and feeling extremely full will make you feel very stuffed and bloated. The feeling between hunger and fullness is being satisfied, comfortable, and content, both physically and emotionally.
Some signs of physical hunger:
- stomach rumbling
- feelings of lightheadedness or shakiness
- low energy
- lack of focus
- a change in mood
- thinking more about food
Eating and Mindfulness
If you’re ready to stop emotionally eating, first begin by changing your habits: start making notes of events that result in heightened emotions and your reactions to it. Journaling can help with this practice. This can take time to learn, be patient and kind to yourself with the process. Finding your motivation helps to keep up with new habits. Some ways to remind you to check in with yourself are keeping a journal in your kitchen, setting an alarm around meals, or asking a relative or friend to support you along the way.
There are many ways to cope with emotions that don’t involve food. Mindfulness is a helpful way to manage stress and can improve mental health. Moving your body may help balance your emotions. Go on a walk when you feel stressed, do a few minutes of yoga to improve your mood, or take a group fitness class to release pent-up feelings. Another option is to seek help from others when you discover you need it. Family, friends, and your community are great ways to find guidance and receive support and so is talking to a professional and looking into healthcare services for treatment.
Dalila Mumic
Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics