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Emotional Eating
“Comfort foods are extremely addictive,” say Brian Wansink, PhD, director of the Food and Brand Lab at the University of Illinois. “We are not inclined to think of food as an addictive drug, but for most over weight individuals, comfort foods are every bit as addicting as alcohol. When an emotional event occurs, there is a tendency for us to turn to food to help feel better, just as an alcoholic turns to alcohol.
Adding to the problem, is the weight gain associated with comfort food consumption. Research shows that comfort foods like are typically loaded with excess calories and are one of the primary contributors to obesity in the U.S.
Are you trying to lose weight but find it impossible to stay away from you favorite comfort food? You’re not alone.
With Supresalin 60 you can have instant willpower over even the most tempting comfort foods. Simply chew 1-2 piece of Supresalin 60 when a craving hits and in 60 seconds you can notice working to stop the craving and give you back control so you don’t binge.
Food is supposed to be something we use to satisfy our hunger and provide our bodies with valuable vitamins and nutrients. But for many people, food has become more than just fuel for the daily activities of life.
Some people turn to food to handle overwhelming emotions, like stress. For these emotional eaters, eating as a way to deal with stress can easily lead to overeating. As the stress of life builds, stress eating can lead to becoming overweight or even obese if left unchecked.
Take look at the chart below and see if you are showing the signs of emotional eating.
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Emotional Hunger
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Physical Hunger
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Comes on suddenly: One minute you’re fine, the next you’re famished. You start thinking, “I did great all day," and suddenly at 4:00 PM, you get an unrelenting hankering, and run to the vending machine to buy a chocolate bar.
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Develops gradually. Your stomach starts to growl a little, then it gets progressively louder. About an hour later you feel the appetite pangs that tell you it's time to eat.
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Is the desire for a specific item, usually sweet. When you eat emotionally, the craving is focused on one particular food, group and nothing else suffices.
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Is not focused on a particular food group. When you are physically hungry you are open to a variety of foods. You may have preferences, but you're flexible.
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Is in your head. It begins in the mind and connects with your mouth…the “mind-mouth connection.” You can’t stop thinking about how that one food will taste. (For example, your mouth starts watering just thinking about something sweet and you cannot focus on anything else.)
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Is in your stomach--not your head. With physical hunger you feel a distinct sensation of emptiness, and sometimes even pain in your belly. Some people even experience sleepiness, irritability and reduction of motor function.
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Is immediate – you must eat the desired food… this second! For example, you argue with your mother, then run to the freezer for a pint of Ben and Jerry's Cookie Dough ice cream. It's gone in minutes.
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Is not urgent. You may feel that you need to eat soon, but it doesn’t force you to drop everything and gobble instantaneously.
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Is triggered by an emotional event. Whether stress, anger, anxiety at work or at home triggers the feelings of emotional hunger, the point of origin is feeling negative in some way. Examples of eating emotionally are pigging out (when you're not even hungry!) after an explosive meeting at work, arguing with your in- laws, losing a friend who's been sick with a chronic illness, butting heads with your mate. You get the idea.
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Is caused by a bonafide biological need. You are physically hungry because you haven’t eaten in several hours and your body is low on fuel. Physical hunger is sometimes accompanied by a feeling of dizziness and lack of energy.
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Emotional eater lose track of how much they eat – and nibble absentmindedly. People who experience late-night munchies while unwinding in front of the TV are almost definitely emotionally eating. They often feel lonely, stressed out, unfulfilled, tense or bored and unfulfilled.
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Physical hunger involves a conscious decision about caloric intake. You are aware that your body requires nourishment, and you make a mindful decision about what--and how much--to give it.
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Doesn’t respond to fullness. You still have the empty feeling long after your stomach is satiated. For example, your friend cancels long-awaited dinner plans, so you order in a pepperoni pizza and eat the whole thing in one sitting, and wash it down with a brownie for good luck.
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Recognizes limits. When you are physically hungry you distinguish that you are eating to refuel the body and you stop when it is full.
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Is fueled by guilt. You try to overcome the self-loathing feelings by promising to exercise or skip meals tomorrow. Hardcore meal-skippers are often emotional eaters.
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Is a necessary behavior. There is no remorse or shame involved with physical hunger; you realize that it is necessary to sustain life.
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Although negative emotions can trigger emotional eating, you can take steps to control cravings and renew your effort at weight loss. To help stop emotional eating, try these tips:
- Tame your stress. If stress contributes to your emotional eating, try a stress management technique, such as yoga, meditation or relaxation.
- Have a hunger reality check. Is your hunger physical or emotional? If you ate just a few hours ago and don't have a rumbling stomach, you're probably not really hungry. Give the craving a little time to pass.
- Keep a food diary. Write down what you eat, how much you eat, when you eat, how you're feeling when you eat and how hungry you are. Over time, you may see patterns emerge that reveal the connection between mood and food.
- Get support. You're more likely to give in to emotional eating if you lack a good support network. Lean on family and friends or consider joining a support group.
- Fight boredom. Instead of snacking when you're not truly hungry, distract yourself. Take a walk, watch a movie, play with your cat, listen to music, read, surf the Internet or call a friend.
- Take away temptation. Don't keep supplies of comfort foods in your home if they're hard for you to resist. And if you feel angry or blue, postpone your trip to the grocery store until you're sure that you have your emotions in check.
- Don't deprive yourself. When you're trying to achieve a weight-loss goal, you may limit your calories too much, eat the same foods frequently and banish the treats you enjoy. This may just serve to increase your food cravings, especially in response to emotions. Let yourself enjoy an occasional treat and get plenty of variety to help curb cravings.
- Snack healthy. If you feel the urge to eat between meals, choose a low-fat, low-calorie snack, such as fresh fruit, vegetables with fat-free dip, or unbuttered popcorn. Or try low-fat, lower calorie versions of your favorite foods to see if they satisfy your craving.
- Get enough sleep. If you're constantly tired, you might snack to try to give yourself an energy boost. Take a nap or go to bed earlier instead.
According to research performed at the University of Maryland, 75% of overeating is caused by emotions, so dealing with emotions appropriately is important.
If you have an episode of emotional eating, forgive yourself and start fresh the next day. Try to learn from the experience and make a plan for how you can prevent it in the future. Focus on the positive changes you're making in your eating habits and use Supresalin 60 to help give you immediate control when an emotional eating episode strikes.
There are several ways in which stress can contribute to weight gain. One has to do with cortisol, a stress hormone. When we’re under stress, the fight or flight response is triggered in our bodies, leading to the release of various hormones.
Whether we're stressed because of constant, crazy demands at work or we're really in danger, our bodies respond like we're about to be harmed and need to fight for our lives (or run like heck). To answer this need, we experience a burst of energy, shifts in metabolism and blood flow, and other changes.
If you remain in this state for a prolonged amount of time due to chronic stress, your health becomes at risk. Aside from a host of other dangers, chronic stress can also cause weight gain.
Chronic stress and cortisol can contribute to weight gain in the following ways:
Metabolism -- Do you feel like you're prone to putting on more weight when you're stressed, even if you're eating the same amount of food as you always have? Too much cortisol can slow your metabolism, causing more weight gain than you would normally experience. This also makes dieting more difficult.
Cravings -- OK, you're stressed. Do you reach for a nice salad or a pint of Ben & Jerry's? I'll bet on the latter. People experiencing chronic stress tend to crave more fatty, salty and sugary foods. This includes sweets, processed food and other things that aren’t as good for you. These foods are typically less healthy and lead to increased weight gain.
Blood Sugar -- Prolonged stress can alter your blood sugar levels, causing mood swings, fatigue, and conditions like hyperglycemia. Too much stress has even been linked to metabolic syndrome, a cluster of health concerns that can lead to greater health problems, like heart attacks and diabetes.
Fat Storage -- Excessive stress even affects where we tend to store fat. Higher levels of stress are linked to greater levels of abdominal fat. Unfortunately, abdominal fat is not only aesthetically undesirable, it’s linked with greater health risks than fat stored in other areas of the body.
Stress and weight gain are connected in other ways:
Emotional Eating -- Increased levels of cortisol can not only make you crave unhealthy food, but excess nervous energy can often cause you to eat more than you normally would. How many times have you found yourself scouring the kitchen for a snack, or absently munching on junk food when you’re stressed, but not really hungry?
Fast Food -- Experts believe that one of the big reasons we’re seeing more obesity in our society these days is that people are too stressed and busy to make healthy dinners at home, often opting to get fast food at the nearest drive-thru instead.
Too Busy to Exercise -- With all the demands on your schedule, exercise may be one of the last things on your to-do list. If so, you’re not alone. Americans live a more sedentary lifestyle than we have in past generations, yet our minds seem to be racing from everything we have to do. Unfortunately, from sitting in traffic, clocking hours at our desks, and plopping in front of the TV in exhaustion at the end of the day, exercise often goes by the wayside.
Fortunately, there are things you can do to reverse the pattern of weight gain and actually reduce your stress level and waistline at the same time.
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