Are you having a hard time getting rid of those extra pounds you gained during the pandemic? Guess what, You’re not alone! You may be an emotional eater. It is estimated that 75% of Americans are emotional eaters. Perhaps this is why 42% of adults in America are obese and that number is rising. Emotional eating and binge eating are major contributors to obesity.
Covid-19 and Emotional Eating
You need to look no further than the internet to find a countless number of memes about gaining weight during the Covid-19 pandemic, and it’s no surprise, that being stuck at home without normal activities and constant access to food can easily lead to overeating. On top of boredom and proximity to food, the worries, stress, and fear that accompany a global pandemic can easily lead to emotional eating. Watching too much television, especially the morning and evening news and listening to negativity from well-meaning family and friends can also cause emotional eating.
In fact, there is an entire body of evidence on how our emotions influence our eating behaviors. Researchers have learned that emotional eating is more complex than they once believed and depends on a wide range of variables that can be difficult to measure.
One of the most important things researchers have learned is that emotional eating is complicated. An early systematic review established that each individual’s specific emotions and food choices are important elements in understanding emotional eating and that secrecy surrounding eating is also a factor.
The review found evidence that emotional eating is tied to obesity. Specifically, when obese study participants experienced negative emotions, such as anger, loneliness, boredom and depression, they ate more than normal-weight individuals and they reported that eating reducing the underlying experience of those feelings. Now researchers believe this may be a learned behavior, according to a more recent review, published last year in Current Directions in Psychological Science. This review found that people may learn to associate eating with specific emotions and social situations. In another review published in 2017 underscores the complexities in studying emotional eating. The authors found that positive emotions and social situations are also associated with eating. (Think about celebrating an accomplishment with a dinner out or a special dessert.)
They also found that a broad range of negative emotions – stress, depression and sadness, shame and aggression and anger – were associated with emotional eating and specifically binge eating. Additionally, they found that these negative emotions were more likely to lead to unhealthy food choices. This type of emotional eating over time is eventually what leads to sustained weight gain.
This all makes the COVID-19 pandemic seem like a perfect storm for emotional eating. While that may be true, research shows there are steps you can take to avoid emotional and binge eating, especially when experiencing negative emotions.
The take-home message: Yes, emotional eating is a real phenomenon that is especially prevalent when you are feeling stressed, depressed or bored. But there are steps you can take to avoid emotional eating: pay attention to your feelings; when you feel upset, consciously make healthy food choices; start an exercise program; go for a walk; listen to music; read a good book; engage in housework to keep your mind off of the food. I would also recommend socializing with positive people. Don’t put on the negative news first thing in the morning, instead put on some upbeat music, watch some motivational or inspirational videos. That’s how I start my day along with an attitude of gratitude.
Life is what we make it. If you want positivity in your life, then act and think positive, and consider participating in a positive program such as my next Six Weeks to Family Fitness program, which starts on June 21st. Being a part of a community of like-minded people all working towards the same or similar goals will help reduce the stress in your life.
Dr. Glenn Livingston
I recently interviewed Dr. Glenn Livingston, a veteran psychologist, and longtime CEO of a multi-million-dollar consulting firm that has serviced several Fortune 500 clients in the food industry. Dr. Glenn was disillusioned by what traditional psychology had to offer overweight and food-obsessed individuals, so he spent several years researching the nature of bingeing and overeating via work with his own patients AND a self-funded research program with more than 40,000 participants. Most important, however, was his own personal journey out of obesity and food prison to a normal, healthy weight and a much more lighthearted relationship with food. In this interview, you will learn how certain food companies are taking the nutrition out of the food and putting the money behind the packaging, therefore making the food more appealing. You will also learn which emotions trigger cravings for what types of food.
This is a very informative interview that will provide you with some additional strategies necessary to stop emotional eating and binge-eating once and for all. You can watch the interview here or listen to it here.
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