Have you ever found yourself eating a liter of ice cream at once while crying? Or find yourself constantly snacking when there's an important date coming up? These are examples of what is known as emotional eating.
What is emotional eating?
There is no single definition of emotional eating; It is very personal, and the experience varies from person to person. In short, it's what happens when you eat not out of hunger, but out of negative or positive feelings; Such as anxiety, anger, sadness or even excitement and happiness.
Other than that, boredom and stress are among the most common moods that trigger emotional eating.
How do you recognize and manage emotional eating?
Recognizing eating for emotions is especially difficult when trying to distinguish it from true "physiological" hunger, which is when your body needs food for energy.
Keeping a "mood and food" diary can help you keep track of your feelings before and after eating, as well as what motivates your food choices.
You can also ask yourself the following:
· Who were you with?
· what did you eat?
· When did you eat?
· Where did you eat?
· Why did you eat?
How do you overcome emotional eating?
Self-talk is powerful, and if you use it wisely, it can be very helpful in managing emotional eating. Identify negative and self-destructive statements such as, “I can’t do that,” “I failed,” or “I don’t deserve,” and replace these with positive, directed comments such as, “This is hard, but it will be worth it” and “I will learn and make a better choice this time.” coming."
· Rate your hunger on a scale from 1 to 10 before eating; Whereas the 10 represents extreme hunger. When you get ratings below 5, choose another activity where your emotions are most likely to make you want to eat. Food will not satisfy a person who eats for emotional reasons. Therefore, it is important to discover other, more productive ways to address emotional eating.
· Look for alternatives to deal with positive and negative stimuli in life. Go for a walk, read a book, take a bath, listen to music, or practice deep breathing. When you find something that works, incorporate it into your life or come back to it when you need it most.
· Strive for progress, not perfection. Prepare yourself emotionally for the ups and downs as you work towards achieving your goals, and accept them as part of the learning process. Once you become aware of them, you can recognize the triggers and avoid emotional eating. Remember that the journey is more important than the end goal itself. Enjoy it!
A recent study confirmed that people really crave snacks and fast food when they are stressed by events in their lives, according to the Daily Mail.
Researchers from Australia and New Zealand surveyed 137 adults about their eating habits, feelings of stress, and food cravings over the course of one week.
Participants reported craving more food and eating more fast food in general when the stress they were experiencing increased on a given day.
The study was conducted by sports and health researcher Shaina Liu of the University of Western Australia in Perth and colleagues.
"Feelings of stress and anxiety may lead to altered eating behavior," the team wrote.
They added that stress also affects “the types of foods that individuals consume. Both individuals experiencing stress and emotional eating often seek out palatable energy-dense foods and drinks rich in sugar and/or saturated and trans fats.”
They explained that emotional eating is that which relates to those who tend to overeat in response to negative emotions, and in particular when faced with anxiety and stress.
In the study, researchers asked participants to report their levels of stress and anxiety according to a specific scale that focuses on feelings of anxiety, nervousness, and panic.
The team's analysis revealed that participants reported intense cravings for carbohydrates, sweets, and fast foods on the days when they felt more stressed.
Moreover, the more stressed people were, the more sweets and junk food they reported consuming, along with greater amounts of food in general.
These findings encourage further investigation into the ways in which food cravings lead to subsequent consumption, the team wrote.
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Diets don’t work for people who eat through their emotions.
Instead, learning to recognize the stressors that lead to emotional eating and to address those tensions through other methods besides eating is the goal.
When we handle stress well away from the table, we’re free to relax and really savor our food when we choose to eat.
With Therapist Arlene B. Englander learn how to stop stress eating, self care and love your food.
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Also, extra vegetable will be served as a side dish.
Vegetables are good for our healthy.
Tom yum soup is packed with flavor from lime, chiles, galangal, and lemongrass.CookingWe all know that the thai food is cooked quickly on a high heat.
Little oil is used in the cooking of Thai stir fried dishes.Low Sugar and SaltThai chefs experts utilize characteristic sugars, for example, palm sugar.
This has a lower GI than basic refined sugars and furthermore gives a progressively extreme taste.
