I’m sure you’ve ever found yourself in a situation of a lot of stress, or going through a moment of anger, anxiety, or sadness and the first thing you’ve done has been to compulsively eat the first thing you find when opening the cooking fridge or pantry. Does it sound familiar? Well, these are common attitudes of emotional hunger.
What is Emotional Hunger?
Explained in a simple way, emotional hunger is nothing more than the action of resorting to food to satisfy different emotions, most of the time negative.
All humans are emotional beings and sometimes not only feed ourselves to satisfy physical hunger, but we also eat to meet our emotional needs. In general, we say we eat emotionally when we want to satisfy negative emotions such as stress, anxiety, or loneliness, rather than trying to pay attention to positive emotions such as happiness.
How do you distinguish whether it’s emotional hunger?
One of the most common emotions is stress, which always comes from the hands of other negative emotions such as anxiety or rage, even sadness. Usually, it’s meals loaded with sugars and saturated fats that satisfy us emotionally, as they are the perfect distraction.
- Emotional hunger suddenly appears abruptly, instead of going up over time.
- You have desires for very specific foods that are usually high in calories or processed.
- You don’t eat consciously, even though there are no distractions.
- Although you feel full and satisfied, the call is to keep eating.
- Emotional hunger often leaves a feeling of repentance, guilt, and shame.
Estefanía Fernández, nutritionist, educator, publicizer, and currently nutritional coach of the Adidas Runners team in Madrid, better known on social networks as StefyActiva, proposes some very useful tips if you often find yourself resorting to food to numb your feelings and emotions:
– Be aware when you use food to cope with stress. Reduce speed and pay attention when you eat them. Think about what food will make you feel better at the time. Use all your senses to smell and taste that food.
– Make a daily of gratitude. Take three minutes every morning or afternoon to score three things you’re grateful for and at least one positive thing that happened that day.
– Don’t skip your meals. If you’re used to making three meals, and that works for you, try not to skip them. Skipping meals results in fluctuating blood sugar levels, which can make the stress response worse.
– Try meditation. Devoting a few minutes a day to meditating or practicing deep breathing can help you feel calmer and reduce your stress response.
– Listen to music. Music can have a relaxing effect on our minds and bodies, reducing heart rate and pulse, lowering blood pressure, and lowering stress hormone levels.
– Add quality carbohydrates at night. I mean, take off the myth of not eating foods rich in carbohydrates at night. If you consume sweet potatoes, oats, potatoes, fruits such as bananas, kiwi, strawberries, etc., they can help regulate the cortisol in the blood (stress hormone).
– Accept help. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness but of strength.
– Learn to say no. Don’t feel like you have to say yes to everything, to all social events, or to everything that means work. Prioritise which are the most important to you.
Food is not just nutrition and fuel, it’s part of our culture, family, and many more things.