It seems more and more apparent that in the UK we eat for many reasons other than hunger. Habit, fun, boredom, cravings, social occasions are all often citied at reasons why people eat. However something that appears to be becoming more or more associated with food, especially in my weight loss clinic, is emotional eating. Stress, anxiety, sadness, loneliness, happiness and guilt are just a few of the emotions people express they are feeling when they make a decision to eat.
How many people recognise themselves in this cycle?
Eating to quash emotions can sometimes be due to deep-rooted and long term emotional issues, however, sometimes it’s for more general day to day emotions, such as stress. Either way if someone is eating for emotional reasons and their health is suffering as a consequence, simply telling them to restrict, avoid or swap their foods is not likely to help on it’s own.
What needs to happen is for an emotional eater to get to the root of the emotion first and foremost.
I’ve designed a toolkit to help people understand a little more about their eating habits and to see if they can make some changes simply by ‘thinking differently’. Please be aware it’s not an answer to “the root of the problem” and seeking support for this or making other changes to your life may be essential to fully deal with the emotion.
Dealing with Emotional Eating
I hope you find the toolkit useful. For references and more information, please contact me directly here.