Emotional eating

Trees For The Future, take action now.

• Join the Tree Club, a Tree will be planted in Your Name !
  A mission to help our planet restore the millions of trees that are lost each year. For every friend you tell about us, we will commission Trees For The Future plant one tree for you and one tree for each friend referred.

How many times we sat at the table impelled by a real sense of hunger ? How many times, instead, we did so only becouse we were attracted by a pleasant perfume or a inviting dish? And yet who of us has never accept a food that evokes , in a way, a particulary pleasant time and refused one associated with a not too happy moment?

Inevitably the emotions are part of human experience and are part of our lives, our behavior and our habits. Among the strongest emotions there are those related to our body and therefore also the emotions generated by food.

The feed is one of the most important components in the human life and is often linked to certain emotional situations. Very few people consider eating only as a means of nourishment. Eating is it an activity that adsorbs most of the day. The meals are an important point of reference, mark our day. We socialize and we celebrate through food, the food is part of certain religions rituals, all of us have a strong preferences and passion towards some food than others.

All of this makes us see how in reality no one of us is able to be remote or emotionally indifferent to food and as the hunger is often confused with the emotions and the food is used to cope the difficulties and stress of everyday life.

For some people this is more true than others. They are emotional eaters.

Some research assert that the relationship with food has origin during the childhood.

When a mater is careful to the needs of child and gives food in responce to his signals of need nutritional , in generally, allow the development of the sensation of hunger as an idea distinct from other needs and feelings .

Instead if the maternal response is inappropriate , for recklessly or too much concern, the child develops a sense of confusion that ,when he will be adult , do not allow him to distinguish between the hunger or the satiety from other feelings both pleasant and unplesant

Furthermore , if the food from childhood is used as gratification, comfort, substitute of affection, blackmail or insult , there may be a relationship distorder and altered with food.

What are the emotions that accompany the need to use the food?

Usually are: sadness ,anxiety, boredom, loneliness, anger and.... happyness!

let's see now one by one the psychological mechanisms that are the origin of these behaviors and what to do with them.

Sad Eaters

the individual is sad and tries to overcome his sadness eating. The sadness result usually from a realistic analysis of an unpleasant event, a loss or a disappointment.

The first step is to identify and change the own thought recalling that sentiments aren't determined by the event, but rather from thoughts in respect of the event.

A help for this type of eater is a physical exercice continued , becouse in this way we obtain an improvment of mood. The beneficial effects arrive also with a walk at least 30 minutes a day and with a life in general more active

Anxious Eaters :

anxiety is a primary emotion and involves an activation status of the body when a situation is perceived as dangerous.

Typical the connection between anxiety and food. The subject anxious tries to alleviete the symptoms of sweating, agitation, tension, restlessness with food.

To resolve this condition must, first at all, identify the emotions , the thoughts and the circumstances that create anxiety and then discussion and change in rational mode the mental attitude

Bored eaters :

for some individuals the food is the only legitimate reason to stop an boring activity.

Boredom is not associated with evident symptoms, therefore is very difficoult to identify the problem.

The analysis and the registration of food consumed and the verification of the moments when we lose control during the day, are the instrumental used to highlight the association of food with situation where the subject had nothing exiting things to do.

It is useful planning pleasurable activities and, when this is not possible, find the way to carry out the boring activities in a place where there isn't food available.

Alone Eaters :

the food is used as a substitute for something missing, as a companion, a friend or someone to share the life. The increase weight resulting unfortunately worsens this situation , becouse it increases the difficulty of establishing an appropriate relationship with others.

there are two types of loneliness: the first is caused by lack of contact with others, therefore in this person we must try to stimulate the social relationship , he must be helped to overcome any negative thought against him ability to relate to the people.

The second type of loneliness is characterized from interpersonal contacts extremely shallow so that the subjects in question are afraid to share their feelings with someone , becouse they fear to be regarded as negative and than to be rejected.

We must learn to identify one or two real friends, and know them better, unpretending the perfection in the people selected . Of course the process requires much times, therefore is always opportune remembering that the great friendship is characterize by the commitment and by the succession of many ups and downs and that overcome potential misunderstanding can help to build a stable and lasting relationship.

Angry Eaters :

the anger , in the form of resentment, jealousy or frustation, can be associated with emotional eating and to overeating . In generally these feelings are due to the fact that the subjects are unable to achive what he want and, therefore, they eats for discharge.

Eating in excess is the way to tollerate the anger repressed , that is a feeling not expressed openly.The subjects sometimes suffer from pain to the stomach or to the muscles.

In this case we must learn to menage the anger and to achive this result there are several techniques: one of this is expressing anger, becouse as long as the subject does not learn to eliminate this feeling is likely than he will find eating out of control in the moments in which he is furious. Another system is to work not so much on anger as on the irrational thoughts that produce this emotional state.

Celebratory Eaters:

are people for whom it is impossible to rejoice in something to positive and important

without abusing with food. The Eating, in our culture, plays a primary role in almost all social relationships, so who usually use the food to make him social life happy, find much difficulty in taking part an event without food or drink in excess.

If a subject has this problem, he must understand that the social occasions are made for meet people and not for eat the food unnecessarily and that there is the possibility of use of food with low fat also in this situations.

A special consideration should be made for the relationship between hunger and stress that has, at the base, some physiological mechanisms.

Under stress the body produces a substance ,called noradrenaline, which inhibits the release to another substance , the corticotropin, that, among its many effects,remove appetite. So it is clear that stress, producing noradrenaline, hinders the corticotropin to make us feel a sense of satiety, hence the costant sense of hunger, made just stress.

The main antagonist of noradrenaline is another substance,produced by our brain, the serotonin that, contrary to the noradrenaline, stimulates the release to corticotropine and consequently the sense of satiety.

It was found that people with uncontrollable impulses towards food, especially to sweet and carbohydrates ,generally have low levels of serotonin. The serotonin is produced if in the body there is an amino acid: the tryptophan , but is activated only if it available carbohydrates.

When the level of serotonin is low, the body emits signals compulsive of request for what is able to raise it quickly . The sweets and carbohydrates, for their interconnection with the amino acid tryptophan , are therefore the ideal food.

The function of tryptophan is to help improve sleep and mood and it is often used as an antidepressant while it isn't a medicament. It also reduces the sensibility to pain, so much that is prescribed in some case of severe migraine.

The tryptophan is an essential amminoacid, namely our body is not able to synthesize it. The food rich in tryptophan are: the legumes, the peanuts, the fish, the dairy and the eggs. Particularly well-know for their high content of tryptophan are: choccolate, peanuts, milk, cheese, yogurt, ricotta.

Also Follow a slimming diet can be a source of stress, for example when it is lived as an imposition, or rather a self- imposed , or when we follow in a vicious circle of binges and guilt, or when food becomes our fixed thought and prevents us from living peacefully. In this case the stress lead us to eat more and make us victim of a mechanism that feed itself.

Fight stress means to fight a major causes of hunger nervous...

...some useful advice are:

• recognize the situations that trigger stress and the urge to overeat

• avoid, or at least reduce, exciting food and drinks as spices, pepper, alcohol, coffee and tea.

• Establish what is more important to do, decide the priorities at home such as at work

• set realistic goals and reward youself on the way to reaching these goals.

• Try to rest properly

• semplificate your day: learn to delegate, to request help and to say “no”

• plan your day

• think positively: an optimistic view of the future will help you stay relaxed now.

• Make a moderate physical activity: it is very useful to create welfare and is essential if we want to lose weight

• dedicate yourselves a moment to relax, useful to realese tensions ( as a short walk, or listen some music, or a few minutes of meditation)

• take a relaxing infusion before to sleep.

It may be useful, from a pratical point of view, during the emotional eating, look for a distraction like phoning to a friend, go on walking , make a manual job.