A difficult week, but also a familiar one... For more than two and a half years we have been breathing and eating pressure, worry and anxiety. Israel is at war. If in days of routine we experience a wide range of emotions, including negative emotions, in this period the emotions are intense and prolonged, and sometimes unbearable.
There are those for whom phenomena of anxiety and tensions can lead to a decrease in appetite and reduced food consumption, and there are those whose reaction is the opposite, and the anxieties and pressures encourage the eating of various foods and in relatively large quantities.
What triggers emotional eating?
In order to suppress difficult feelings such as anger, worry, sadness, frustration and tension, we often tend to divert them to another action, comforting and calming, such as eating. Eating, and especially eating food rich in sugar and fat, brings with it a feeling of calm. Even before the act of eating itself, the occupation with preparing the food: Cutting, peeling, cooking and baking and afterward the eating that recruits all the senses, this in itself is an escape from the current feelings to something completely different.
The tendency to use food as a means of regulating emotions, mainly negative feelings, is sometimes acquired already in childhood. For example, when parents offer their young children something sweet as compensation for a painful blow or to adolescents who experienced heartbreak because of unrequited love, or failure in a first driving test.
It is important to emphasize, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Food, beyond its role as a source of nutrition, for supplying energy and essential components to the body, also has other important and significant roles. Food connects between people, it conveys a feeling of home. Food is an important part of the tradition, religion and culture of different communities. And it indeed pampers and sometimes also comforts, but when the use of food is a solution to distress or difficulty that takes root, it is difficult to change the habit.
And so it turns out that when an emotion appears (usually negative but it can also be a positive emotion that is difficult to regulate) there will be an automatic turn to food. Sometimes, without noticing, the door of the refrigerator will open, the drawer with the snack bags or the cookie box that stands on the counter.
Is food as a comforting factor problematic?
As long as the use of food as a comforter does not harm us physically and mentally or bother us, there is no problem with it. The problem begins when there is no balance and food becomes the only or the central tool for comfort. Then food as a solution to an emotional problem can even intensify the problem because of the anger and disappointment with ourselves for choosing to eat or escaping into unnecessary eating.
If the use of food harms us, the first step in coping with the phenomenon is awareness of it. Emotional hunger can be very powerful, and therefore it is easy to confuse it with physical hunger. It is possible to learn to distinguish when food is an outlet for emotional distress, and to adopt behavior patterns that help cope with emotional eating. This is a skill that is acquired over time and requires patience.
This is how we distinguish between physical hunger and emotional hunger
It is possible to identify whether eating is a way of coping with emotional hunger or physical hunger. Here are several ways that will help examine the motivation for eating. Immediate or gradual: Physical hunger develops slowly and gradually. Emotional hunger, on the other hand, arrives “urgently” and demands immediate satisfaction.
Fruits and vegetables or chocolate and burekas: When one is physically hungry, almost anything sounds good and tasty, even foods that are less loved or popular. But in emotional hunger there is a craving for sweet and/or fatty foods that provide an immediate urge. You feel that you need chocolate or burekas – and nothing else will “do the job”.
Eating on automatic: Emotional hunger often leads to unconscious eating. Before noticing, the rustling bag or the ice cream box are already empty... And not always even enjoyed. In eating due to physical hunger, one is usually more aware of what one eats.
The body speaks or the soul speaks: The feeling of physical hunger comes from the stomach, “a rumbling stomach”, while emotional hunger comes from the heart that leads us to certain tastes, smells and textures. Emotional eating can also be identified in hindsight. This does not need to frustrate, but rather contribute to raising awareness and help coping the next time.
The stomach is full but something is missing: Eating after physical hunger causes a feeling of fullness and satiety. Eating due to emotional hunger does not satisfy, even when there is a feeling of fullness. The desire to continue eating exists, even if the desire and the eating cause a feeling of discomfort.
What remains afterward: Eating following physical hunger calms and makes one happy, while after emotional hunger one sometimes understands that the eating was “for the wrong reasons”. There is a feeling of guilt, regret, shame, frustration and helplessness.
How to cope with and reduce emotional eating?
Stop and ask what is happening: Try to dwell on the emotion. Understand what you feel and why. Allow ourselves to be sad or hurt without looking for a solution. In the meantime find calming actions such as a quick shower or a prolonged bath, walking with the dog, listening to music or watching an episode or two of a television series. Such actions can help get through the urge to eat without eating and perhaps also regulate the difficult emotion.
Write in order to understand: Write down what you eat and your mood at that time: Anxiety, sadness, frustration, anger. Sometimes identifying the reason for emotional eating alone is enough to reduce it and even prevent it.
Let ourselves be: And if we did eat, and did not manage to stop in advance, it is important to learn to forgive ourselves. This is what we would do if it were a good friend, who would tell us that he “finished the entire package of cookies, and he feels terrible”. There is no point in beating ourselves up and dragging along guilt and anger.
Ask for reinforcement: Another way to cope with emotional eating is accompaniment and guidance of a dietitian, a psychologist or both. Emotional eating is a phenomenon that is familiar to many people, and the emotional reality in which we are immersed is not simple. Turning to food as a response to such a period is completely human, and the science of evolution and physiology provides explanations for this. The change will not always happen overnight, and that is perfectly fine. The more we get to know the pattern better, the easier it will be for us to respond to it differently the next time, mainly if we prepare ourselves for it.