Hello everyone!  Thank you for continuing to read the Self Help Tips Blog.  Today I would like to address one of the main causes of America’s obesity epidemic:  Emotional Eating.

Food is a source of nourishment and energy. Without food, we would not be able to perform our daily activities. Our muscles would wither and our nervous system would fail. We all need food.

However, food also has another role in our lives - a role of comfort and entertainment. Culturally and instinctively, we prepare and serve foods to comfort those who have experienced loss, to celebrate joy or to show friendship and love.

What is emotional eating?

Seeing food as more than just a source of energy and enjoying it simply for the satisfaction that it gives is not wrong. In fact, science shows that food can promote good feelings through chemical reactions in the brain. What IS a problem is when an individual cannot experience pain, anxiety, joy or even boredom without turning to food as means of dealing with those feelings. Many of these same people become obsessed with food, weight and dieting.

Emotional eaters turn to food as a means to distract themselves from having to deal with their feelings. However, the overeating leads to feelings of guilt which can only be soothed with more eating, restrictive dieting, excessive exercise or purging.

Emotional eaters tend to value themselves based on their weight and how closely they’ve stuck to their ‘ideal’ diet. Because of this distorted relationship with food, foods are labeled either "good" or "bad". Emotional eating can lead to serious eating disorders and depression.

How do I know if I’m an emotional eater?

Do you turn to food for reasons other than hunger? Are you obsessed with thoughts of food, whether you plan to eat it or are concentrating on restricting yourself from eating it?

Do you regularly try diets and fail, leading to guilt and further over-eating? Do you think about or attempt to purge excess food by throwing up or using laxatives? Do you exercise compulsively when you think that you’ve eaten too much?

How do I overcome emotional eating?

Since emotional eating is caused by using food as a tool for coping with emotional distress, dieting can actually create more problems. When the emotional eater fails to stick to a diet, they suffer from feelings of guilt that can only be soothed with more food and in turn, more guilt or punishment.

Instead of trying to focus on what they are eating, the emotional eater needs to learn new skills for coping with stressful emotions. This often requires the help of a Personal Coach or Psychotherapist who deals with emotional eating. Once an emotional eater can find replacements for the comfort that food provides, the individual can put food into its rightful place and learn healthy eating habits that will last a lifetime.