This Is How You Can Overcome Stress-Eating
Food is one of the most important factors of survival. After all, there is no way that a person could survive without proper nutrition considering a healthy body’s most urgent requirement is a well-balanced diet. But that is not all that good does. It clearly fulfils our physical need for hunger but along with it, food also proves to be a source of emotional comfort. And this is not a foreign concept, in fact, it happens to be a very common phenomenon that people seek emotional comfort from food when they are emotionally drained out. I am sure most of us remember binging on whatever snack we could find while waiting for an exam result or a callback from that job interview. Well, it wasn’t really because you were hungry and needed to eat. It was more or less a way for you to fulfil your emotional needs.
In case you also remember eating more than you needed or even wanted when you experienced a certain level of stress, it’s very likely that you were stress-eating. If researches are to be believed, there happens to be a strong connection between stress and hunger hormones. As a result, stress leads people toward emotional eating, where they basically eat more in order to fulfil their emotional needs instead of physical needs.
Even though, it is quite common and normal that we all stress eat from time to time under a particularly stressful situation. But this can become an issue if stress eating becomes a daily routine for people and causes disruption in their daily life. This kind of regular stress eating could lead to a number of problems like indigestion, sudden weight gain, etc. While in conversation with Shreya, a Chandigarh-based dietitian, we came to know further about stress eating and how to manage this problem.
So, here’s a simple formula to overcome stress-eating or emotional eating:
- Stress triggers
Instead of looking for ways to control the urge of eating, people should look for the trigger of this urge. As per Shreya, it is quite common for people to experience stress due to the turns of events in their lives but there is a fair possibility that the stress you are experiencing is due to nutrient deficiency. A common example of this could be the stress caused by the lack of vitamin D3. This stress can result in stress eating which can be a cause for further problems. Hence, people need to find the trigger first.
- Taste
Stress is a common occurrence that we all experience due to the kind of hectic lifestyle we live in. It is inevitable that you would like to eat for just the purpose of taste instead of hunger from time to time. But it is not advisable to control yourself from eating every single time. Instead, Shreya recommends that it is okay to satisfy your craving once in a while as every person is allowed a cheat meal. Further, this can help in decreasing the episodes of stress eating.
- Rejuvenation
You can also tackle stress eating by tackling stress. You can practice recreational or physical activities like dancing, yoga, jogging, painting, etc. to give an outlet to your negative feelings in a productive manner.
- Sleep deprivation
A lot of people do not keep this in mind but a healthy sleep routine can put an end to a lot of problems and stress eating is one of them. Irregular sleeping patterns can increase the stress levels in an individual which further leads to mood swings and feeling hungry and drained.
This issue can be easily tackled by getting a proper 7 to 8 hours of sleep.
- Stay hydrated
Our bodies can easily mistake dehydration for the feeling of hunger which leads us to eat more food when in reality, all we need is more amount of water. In order to stay hydrated, all you need to do is drink a proper amount of water on a daily basis.