Eating that makes us more comfortable and helps us manage our emotions, is called “emotional eating” and all of us have probably done it at one time or another.
“Emotional eating” becomes destructive to us when it becomes the habitual way of dealing with emotionally uncomfortable situations.
Personality Types and Emotional Eating
People who have a low self-esteem, feel insecure, or have low self-confidence are most likely to be practitioners of this type of behavior.
These are the types of individuals who feel insecure and will often wilt when psychological pressure rises. Or it may be that they feel inadequate for the challenge they face and will resort to eating high fat, high sugar foods and snacks.
The four most common reasons people resort to emotional eating are:
1. Boredom – time on their hands, nothing to do
2. Stressful or tense situations – and the feelings of inadequacy that may accompany these instances
3. The pain of sorrow – due to a loss of some kind
4. Frustration – and the inability to move forward or accomplish desired goals
High fat, high sugar food cause dopamine release
It has been found that high fat, high sugar types of foods and snacks, often have an addictive quality to them because of the mood elevating results people get from these foods. Hormonal studies show that dopamine release int the brain is increased when people eat these types of foods.
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When a drug addict is needing a fix – he is looking for a dopamine release in his brain. Dopamine is a natural neurotransmitter which gives you a high when unnaturally large amounts are released. It has been found that high fat, high sugar foods can stimulate dopamine release.
Many times people who “eat emotionally” are looking for the mood elevation, the effect of the fat and sugar on their brain caused by the action of dopamine.
The dopamine makes them feel better in spite of the situation that caused them to eat the dopamine releasing foods, but doesn’t help them deal with the present.
The emotional trigger for this type of eating could be unique for each individual. The person suffering from this problem uses these types of foods to help them feel better, and to distract them from dealing with the real problem.
Chocolate or high sugar, high fat snack foods are examples. The elevated blood sugar resulting from eating these types of foods in addition to the dopamine release is responsible for the elevation of mood. This, however, is short-lived.
As the blood sugar is digested and depleted, the mood falls, often lower than it was, making one feel worse than before.
Overweight and obesity can be caused “emotional eating”
Regular “emotional eating” will lead to overweight and obesity, because the eating is done to satisfy emotional needs and not physical needs. It results in food consumption irrespective of whether we are hungry or not.
Usually these foods comprise unneeded calories high in fat and sugar. As a result, the body stores these extra calories as fat in our fat cells.