Balancing Emotional Eating In Times of Stress
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Imagine this…
Your day is coming to an end and you begin to feel distressed. Your mind is no longer occupied with work and family responsibilities so your attention begins to drift to painful feelings or anxiety-provoking thoughts.
The next thing you know, you’re searching for something tasty to eat even though you didn’t feel hungry just a few moments ago. Once you start eating, the food brings a sense of pleasure and a welcome distraction from distress.
Before long though, the food is gone and you notice your stomach starting to register feelings of uncomfortable fullness. The joy you experienced while eating has vanished, replaced by feelings of guilt and promises to “make up for it tomorrow” by eating less or exercising more.
For many people, this may sound like an all-too-familiar pattern that makes their relationship with food equal parts “friend” and “foe.”
And as we all deal with the added stress of Coronavirus, it makes sense that many people are turning to food to comfort themselves to help deal with the myriad challenges our situation has created-- uncertainty, loneliness, relationship conflict, financial insecurity, etc. Many people who have battled disordered eating in the past are finding themselves re-triggered into using food as a coping mechanism during these challenging times.
What is the difference between emotional eating and binge eating?
While the experience of emotional eating is common, relatively fewer people engage in binge eating. Emotional eating refers to moments when we use food to cope with difficult thoughts, feelings, or physical sensations. While binge eating can also be triggered by a desire to cope with difficult emotions, according to the DSM-V, two factors distinguish the experience.
First, a binge involves eating an amount of food within a 2-hour period that is significantly larger than a normal portion might be in the same circumstances. For example, eating two to three full plates of food at Thanksgiving is expected given the circumstances. Second, the eating experience involves feeling a “loss of control”; essentially that one cannot stop eating once they’ve started.
Why do we turn to food?
Short-term distress tends to activate our fight-or-flight response, an innate biological process that decreases our desire for food because our body thinks food will interfere with our ability to face an immediate threat. For example, think about how your appetite tends to disappear right before you’re supposed to give a big presentation. However, research has shown that chronic stress can alter hormone levels, change glucose metabolism, promote insulin resistance (1), and increase our preference for sugary or fatty foods (2, 3).
What is the difference between emotional and physical hunger?
Considering emotions are a potent trigger for maladaptive coping with food, it can be helpful to distinguish between physical and emotional hunger so that you can step back and examine urges to eat when they occur.
Emotional hunger:
Comes on suddenly and feels like it needs to be satisfied immediately
Craves specific comfort foods
Isn’t satisfied even on a full stomach
Triggers feelings of guilt, shame, and powerlessness
Physical Hunger:
Comes on gradually and can wait unless you’re famished
Can be satisfied by many different food options, lots of things may sound good
Stops when you are full
Does not make you feel bad about yourself
What are ways to control emotional eating?
Eat Regularly
After we overeat, it can be natural to think that skipping meals or eating smaller portions later might help us compensate for the extra calories we’ve consumed. The reality is that doing so can set us up to overeat again if we are not giving our bodies what they need throughout the day. Getting back into eating regular meals and snacks at set times throughout the day can protect you from falling into a cycle of overeating and restricting.
Emotion Surfing
Using mindfulness, we can non-judgmentally observe our emotions and urges to eat rise and fall. By noticing that our emotions are temporary phenomena that naturally change over time like the weather, we can begin to break the link between negative emotions and giving in to urges to eat. Try out the guided meditation linked here that helps you learn that even very intense emotions will eventually pass if you do not push them away or ruminate on them.
Self-compassion
The experience of overeating often triggers feelings of guilt and shame, especially in a culture that can place an unhealthy importance on physical appearance. However, if we want to change our relationship with food and our bodies, taking a self-compassionate stance is far more effective than adopting a harsh critique of yourself. If you’ve ever been a coach, teacher, or mentor, you probably learned that motivating others with negativity doesn’t produce the best outcomes. Sadly, we frequently assume that berating ourselves is a requirement for summoning motivation to change. It’s possible to be both self-compassionate and take steps to prevent emotional or binge eating. If you notice yourself engaging in negative self-talk around eating, consider asking yourself what you would say to a loved one who had just shared this experience and offer the same kindness and understanding to yourself. On a broader level, practice recognizing that many people struggle in their relationship with food and their bodies and you are not alone. This is especially true during a time in which the world is facing a collective threat like the Coronavirus.
Sources:
Stress, eating and the reward system. Adam TC, Epel ES. Physiol Behav. 2007 Jul 24; 91(4):449-58.
Relationship between stress, eating behavior, and obesity.Torres SJ, Nowson CA. Nutrition. 2007 Nov-Dec; 23(11-12):887-94.
Shaping the stress response: interplay of palatable food choices, glucocorticoids, insulin and abdominal obesity. Warne JP. Mol Cell Endocrinol. 2009 Mar 5; 300(1-2):137-46.
by James Roehrig, PhD
Octave Therapist, Downtown, San Francisco