Emotional Eating

Many people have heard of, or contributed to, emotional eating. This is the idea that consumers like to indulge or restrict their eating patterns based on how they are feeling. It is reasonable to conclude that consistent meals at the same time of day is one of the best ways to sustain optimum health, therefore, emotional eating is unhealthy based on the fact that your varying emotions trigger what you want. Like I said, we all have sat down with a bag of chips and watched a great movie to cope with an unenjoyable feeling, and maybe that time when it was a good idea to have ice cream for breakfast on your birthday. Emotions play a large part in what we choose to eat and, in turn, our health.

Emotional eating can serve different people different results depending on the situation. According to a study from the Journal of Consumer Research in Chicago, there is a huge correlation between temporal focus and the specific emotions associated with them. To simplify, events that are past, present, and future oriented carry different emotions with them and therefore imply different ways of emotional eating. If a woman is reminded of how well she did on the exam, she may be more inclined to eat unhealthy snacks out of joy for the past. This is drastically different than if the woman gets an interview for her dream job; she may want to eat healthier food because the excitement emotion she is feeling implies good for the future, which may induce healthy eating, patterns. The study done be this journal aims to prove that "future temporal focus appraisals associated with specific positive emotions decrease unhealthy food consumption" (JCR). To reiterate this claim, their studies show that when a person is excited about the future, they are more inclined to eat healthier as opposed to feeling happy and content with a previous image of happiness. Self-control is the key to winning this emotional battle. Once you know that certain emotions make you eat unhealthy food, you can adjust this feeling to accommodate a more healthy food choice. This comes from the way we perceive situations and how we disperse our emotions. Think about it: most adults, at least the ones I know, fall into the cliche of the “morning routine” where everything is the same everyday. This stems from a maturity gained from self-control. Not to say that all routines are good, however, it is a way of getting to a state of self-control over the emotions of the day.

When I think of this idea of emotional eating in regards to this study, I immediately think of how much our memories are associated with food. My sister is a nutritionist and she has always talked about how much we alter our diets based on the way we feel. It is always entertaining to see her eating patterns sway with her emotions; she always knows when she is doing it and generally stops when I call her out on it. With the rising health concerns in America such as obesity and diabetes, she is concerned with our swayed diets and she aims for a more holistic approach to eating healthy. This ties into the idea of emotional eating because you have control over what made you happy in the past and what will make you happy in the future. She says that the only way to completely have control over a healthy, consistent diet is to have control over your emotions and self-control, which is difficult to do.

Emotional eating is inevitable. I am not trying to tell you to live the perfect life with zero trace of disappointment, anger, or frustration; however, gaining control over how situations influence your emotions is a great step in having a more healthy consumption of food.

References:

http://0-www.jstor.org.bianca.penlib.du.edu/stable/10.1086/659873