Am I an emotional eater?

Have you ever found yourself turning to food when sad, stressed or experiencing any other unpleasant emotion? This could be emotional eating.  

Emotional eating is when you find yourself reaching for food as a response to a negative emotion. Whether this be anger, frustration, stress or loneliness, emotional eating typically triggers the desire to eat highly palatable foods. Chips and chocolate, we’re looking at you.

Having an emotional connection to food is natural and normal. Think back to when you were young and Mum or Dad bought you ice-cream when you were feeling down. Or when a doctor gave you a lollipop after your visit. Where emotional eating becomes problematic is when it becomes your only way to deal with negative emotions. Emotional eating is also often followed by intense feelings of guilt or shame which only makes you feel worse. It’s like double-dipping into a bad emotion!

Why do I emotionally eat and why is it unhelpful?

To explain emotional eating, let’s explore the balloon analogy created by psychologist and author of Thinsanity, Glenn Mackintosh.  

Imagine a balloon which is filled with  all your negative emotions. 

Everyday stressors in life expand your balloon of negative emotions. Think deadlines at work, a fight with your partner, family arguments or anxiety about an upcoming event. Similar to a balloon, we have a finite amount of space for negative emotions to build-up before needing release. Emotional eating can provide a quick release. Unfortunately, this is short-lived and only feeds back into our balloon of negative emotions. Why? Emotional eating almost always comes with a side order of guilt and shame which funnels straight back into our balloon of negative emotions. From here, the balloon only expands further! 

Where to from here?

When tackling emotional eating, exploring non-food “release valves” for your balloon is key. This is personal and different for everybody. For example, you could call a friend, meditate, journal or take a bath. It is also essential to adequately nourish your body with enough food and abandon diet rules. Being hungry and feeling psychologically deprived of foods deemed “bad” makes it ten times more difficult to manage emotional eating.  This is challenging and having a support team (like one of our Dietitians!) is a game-changer. As part of your team, we help you gain clarity on your specific emotional triggers, develop and practice non-food ways to release negative emotions and reflect on your journey in a non-judgemental way. The goal is to help you continue strengthening your ability to manage emotional eating. 

Do you resonate with our breakdown of emotional eating? If yes, start your journey towards managing it by booking in with one of our Accredited Practising Dietitians today.