Image you've had a fight with your best friend, it’s a stupid fight, some thing you’ll both get over. But right now. you are upset. When you walk in doors your mom asks what’s wrong. How are you most likely to respond?Tell your mom what happened and have a long, comfortable talk about it. Or tell your mom that every thing is fine and head to the freezer for the ice cream.
So what is emotional eating?
Emotional eating is when people use food as away to deal with feelings, particularly negative ones. We’ve all been there, finishing a whole bag of chips out of boredom or downing cookie while cramming for a big test. But when done a lot – especially without realizing it, emotional eating can affect weight, health, and overall well-Not many of us make the connection between eating and our feelings. But understanding what drives emotional eating can help people to take steps to change it.
One o the biggest myth about is that it’s prompted by negative feelings. Yes often turned to food when they are stressed out, lonely, sad or bored. but emotional eating can also link with positive feelings too, like a romance of sharing desert on valentine’s day or the celebrations of a holiday feast.
Sometimes emotional eating is tied to major life events, like coping with death or divorce. More often, it is the countless the daily stresses that cause someone to seek comfort or distraction in food.
It is not easy to ‘unlearn’ patterns o emotional eating, but it is possible. And it starts with an awareness of what’s going on.
