Emotional Eating (Part One)
Written by Ellie Steele, Registered Holistic Nutritionist, Advanced EFT Tapping Practitioner, Holistic Health Coach
Let’s start with the facts: Everyone eats for purely emotional or psychological reasons sometimes. It’s just human nature and it’s not something that should have any shame around it. Check out part one and two of my article on How to Handle Food Cravings to gain a better understanding of the complicated biological, psychological and social elements that create a web of influences on eating behaviours that most of us are completely unaware of.
Our emotional connection to food starts with our very first meal. Feeding as an infant is a time when we connect deeply and bond with our caregivers. As we grow, certain foods are associated with fun, family and feelings of happiness and satisfaction. In our North American culture many of us experience “fun foods” like birthday cake, Halloween candy, Christmas cookies, Easter Bunny chocolates, summertime ice cream and “hot dog day” at school for the duration of our childhoods. These experiences cause unconscious learning and condition us to love these foods. Some children would eat themselves into a coma if we let them, so sometimes it’s even worse if your parents had to control your food intake for your own good, leaving you feeling deprived of all these treats!
Eating in general and eating certain foods in particular, can have major impacts on our brain that influence learning and unconscious psychological conditioning around food. The psychological associations we make between food and feelings of happiness, fun or comfort are biochemically reinforced again and again when we eat hyperpalatable (very tasty) foods. These treats can cause a big spike of dopamine, a neuromodulator that makes us feel great! Alcohol, cocaine and heroin all cause addiction by flooding the brain with dopamine to create a “high”. Food can do this as well, to a lesser, but still powerful extent. Paired with the feedback loops from the gut that signal the brain to eat more of any substance that contains sugar and the social elements of eating and we have a perfect storm that can lead to problematic cravings and emotional eating as we unconsciously seek feelings of pleasure, comfort or satisfaction that have been associated with food in a myriad of ways.
Some people, including me, have a higher susceptibility to food cravings and emotional eating. Those with lower susceptibility don’t understand and they often tell us to just use some “grit” and self-control to manage our food intake. Through my personal and clinical experience, I’ve come to the conclusion that willpower is not an effective tool in the face of incessant food cravings and when people imply that we’re simply weak, it can be very hurtful. We don’t need more grit; we need strategies to manage the powerful biochemical, psychological and social elements that outweigh willpower every day of the week, and sometimes, that strategy may include eating for emotional reasons!
No one wants to live in deprivation and I’m certainly not encouraging total abstinence from delicious foods. I’m an advocate for what I think of as “harm-reduction” strategies in relation to our modern food environment. That means being aware of the potential dangers of hyperpalatable, addictive and engineered foods including the negative effects they have on our health, but also how they affect our brain and our ability to control our intake of them.
Let’s face it; life can be extremely hard sometimes. All the yoga, mantras, spa days, counseling and breath work in the world just can’t compete with a quick hit of dopamine from a hot fudge sundae. That’s the unfortunate truth we must accept to move forward. Here’s another truth; the “hit” we get from food is extremely short-lived and often followed by an equal and opposite low that ultimately leaves us feeling worse. This is especially true if you let guilt get you in its grip after eating something you wish you hadn’t.
So, now that you have a little better understanding of the deep mechanisms at work when you reach for a “treat”, stay tuned for part two as we explore my guidelines for using food as a mood management strategy in the least destructive way possible.
Ellie helps her clients eat better, think better and live better through a unique combination of holistic nutrition, energy medicine and healthy lifestyle coaching. She is a registered holistic nutritionist, advanced emotional freedom techniques practitioner, social service worker, sports nutrition advisor, personal trainer specialist and 3rd degree Reiki practitioner.
If you’re interested in learning more about fermented foods, including some resources to start your own ferments, feel free to reach out to me! Email me at Ellie@natural-route.com
