8 minute read
The Effects of Emotions on Nutrition
Managing our feelings – Emotions
What is emotional eating, how to notice it, how to prevent it?
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by Mustafa Talha Genç
Let’s start with the definition of emotion first. Emotion is a complex psychophysiological change arising from the interaction of an individual’s mood with internal and environmental influences. It is the main factor determining the sense of health specific to a person and plays a central role in a person’s daily life. Nutrition is the ability of a person to take and use the elements necessary for growth, development, healthy and productive living for a long time into his body. Emotional eating, a concept that we have often heard in recent years, can lead to health problems and can not be controlled.
First of all, we need to determine what kind of hunger we have. We can all easily recognize our physical hunger. If we are physically hungry, our body provides feedback to us in various ways. Our stomach rumbles, we may experience problems such as tremors in the hands, loss of concentration, blood pressure drop. These problems we are experiencing can be solved by eating. We’ll eat enough for our bodies and things will get back to normal. There is relaxation and peace in our body. We feel energetic, we focus more easily, we become more efficient. Because we responded to our body’s feedback and did what it wanted. Uncontrolled eating behavior is not seen in physical hunger.
Emotional eating
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What about emotional hunger?
In the case of emotional hunger, the system is confused and uncertain. Even if you do not interrupt your meals during the day, you want to eat something. Actually, you’re full, but you’re thinking about eating something. Suddenly you find yourself preparing something or buying something. Moreover, the foods consumed in this case are unhealthy foods in general. You suddenly realize that you are eating junk food. But noticing will not prevent this situation. Because a voice inside of you tells you to just eat. ‘Just eat, make sure you relax, you will get away from the stress you are experiencing during the day. I wonder what the chocolate tastes like standing there, you can find out by eating it right away.’ These sounds are so powerful that you can’t resist. You feel happy when you eat. Your body begins to release hormones of peace and happiness. That voice from within has kept its promise and comforted you. After consuming what you have in a hurry (sometimes without anyone seeing), the pleasure that has just been achieved leaves its place to feelings of guilt.
Bad times
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Bad times
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Sometimes it is very difficult to cope with these negative feelings. This time the voice inside you responds. ‘Never mind, don’t stop. There is nothing better than food.” You will listen again to this voice, which has not misled you so far. This communication continues constantly. After a while, you will find yourself in a vicious circle and constantly gaining weight. You want to lose the weight you have gained, but this situation is quite difficult. Because even if your body is full, your soul is not full. (Senem Eke Yildiz)
Sometimes we can’t cope with the situations and emotions we experience in everyday life. We cannot know what to do with negative emotions that are difficult to cope with, such as anxiety, fear, boredom, emptiness, inadequacy, sadness. We want to be alone, we don’t want to talk. We will find it difficult to find solutions. At this point, there may be times when we take support from food to calm our body and soul. Because this support is easy to get and is not complicated. The pleasure of a box of chocolates, a nice dessert, a bag of chips or a large portion of pasta with sauce can help us get away from problems for a while. But only for a while... We feel that we have achieved happiness and peace thanks to them. Because we can easily provide, they will not force us economically. They also do not bother with their practical nature. Besides, we won’t need to go to a psychotherapist. Yes, when we do a momentary evaluation like this, everything seems to be fine. But the important thing is how long this will continue, how long until food will be your therapist. So how healthy is your relationship with food? Does this relationship harm our body?
Of course, this beautiful relationship will come at a cost. I wish it wasn’t. But our body has a functioning order. In order for the order to continue, we must act accordingly. Now let’s look at the consequences of emotional eating on our body. We may not see these results in a short time. But if we are not careful, if we do not behave in accordance with the order of our body, we may face these consequences.
Unbalanced weight gain can occur as inability to lose the weight gained, cardiovascular diseases due to weight gain, problems related to fat in internal organs, obesity, skin problems due to an unbalanced diet, various chronic diseases and pains. Depending on all this, inadequacy, failure, feelings of guilt, inability to manage social relationships, withdrawal and loneliness, restlessness, lack of self-confidence, negative thoughts about the body, anxiety and depression can also be seen in the part that concerns our psychology. However, the time, frequency and duration of occurrence of these conditions vary depending on the person and behaviors.
In order to control or completely eliminate emotional eating behavior, it is necessary to notice this behavior first. Noticing is the first condition of change and renewal. Then it is necessary to understand the triggering emotions and thoughts that reveal the emotional eating behavior. At what stage, at what event or with what emotion the need to eat is felt, these should be determined and a road map should be drawn accordingly. When determining these, it can be an effective way to write down the amount and time of all the foods you eat and drink during the period from the time of departure in the morning to the time of bedtime for 3-5 days or 1 week, along with the time. In fact, with what feeling did you consume food when you consumed it? For example, you got angry at something and immediately ate 1 tablet of chocolate in the drawer with that anger. It will be very useful for you to note such events. The process can progress more systematically and more solution-oriented by getting support from a psychologist. That’s why we shouldn’t avoid getting help from a psychologist. So, we have become aware of our sensory eating behavior, we have identified the reasons, what can we do?
To do list
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When you don’t feel hungry, but you see yourself in a rush to eat, make a “to do” list. If you feel too tired and under responsibility, try to get involved in a more fun activity instead of getting away from your feelings for a moment and eating. Try to go for a walk, meet a friend, rearrange your room, or focus on other activities that will clear your mind and distract you. If you have a pet, take care of it, think about and try to do activities that you always enjoy doing. Trying will not lose you anything, remember that. Try to sleep for a short time. Look at your old photos and remember your memories. Just push yourself, make sure that you can find a solution other than eating. Our goal is not to ban foods, but to postpone the desire to eat that you cannot control, Junking the pleasure you will get from food for a while. To turn to different actions that will give pleasure to yourself (other than food) during the time you delay reaching the food.
The time you put off eating something is your time to observe yourself. The observations you make are very important to you. Thanks to these observations, it will be easier for you to face your emotional hunger and control it. In summary, in order not to eat your emotions, you need to notice them first and then be able to control them properly. Learning to control and balance this desire to eat is the key solution. (Senem Eke Yildiz)
