Emotions and psyche defines the uniqueness of personalities. An individual’s set of influencing emotions define his/her reaction to circumstances situations or life in general. This psychological makeup determines their reaction to external stimuli thereby inducing a reactive or proactive output from the concerned individual.

“Emotional eaters” are individuals who tend to resort to food when faced by an external or internal stimuli striking at their psyche.  In simple words when they are faced with a negative situation, invoking emotions of depression, anxiety, stress etc they resort to food for comfort. Usually these comfort foods are ice-creams, desserts, chocolates, chips, cakes, soft drinks and in extreme cases alcohol, narcotics etc..

These foods are unhealthy and weight inducing. They carry minimal or no nutritious benefit and are consumed only because upon their consumption  psychologically these foods excite the same circuits in the brain which are stimulated  by pleasure inducing drugs thereby  giving a short term high.

We have discussed this issue with a lot of dieticians and in their view this is one the factor inducing obesity in adolescents and adults till the age of 45 years.

Why are we resorting to food? Why are we binge eating? Is it a defensive mechanism whereby we want to hide from our problems?

Yes, psychologists are of the view that people resort to eating as a defense mechanism,  as a sub conscious act of doing something/ some activity.

These compulsive emotional eaters  initially justify an additional weight gain as cosmetic but as this problem accelerates and obesity sets in, it brings a feeling of low self esteem to the person concerned. When repeated fad diets, starvation diets do not give consistent results the feeling of helplessness kicks in and instead of losing weight, these individuals tend  to resort to even more unhealthy eating thinking how much more worse can this be from the existing situation. This is where the vicious circle sets-in.

Please understand, life is never smooth. Something somewhere will always go wrong as in  a boss may scream at you, a maid servant may quit, a spouse may say unkind things in a fit of anger, you may fail a exam, you may not get the desired promotion, your crush may refuse your proposal, you may not succeed in a job interview …. SO WHAT??? go have an ice-cream??? have a packet of chips??? get mindlessly drunk ????? ….. what good will that do?

Will it rectify the problem? Will the issue get resolved?? …. NO, so get up and  take stock of the situation; gear up and take a step forward rather than burying your face in  a packet of chips.

It may seem harsh to you, but then it is imperative that you understand the harsh reality and accept it instead getting into a state of denial. It is upto you how you react to a situation. You should accept your  failures and work hard on the next agenda rather than going into throes of depression and eating your guts out.

What we are trying to put across is a general mindset of emotional eaters. All of us resort to emotional eating somewhere in our life but then identifying it and limiting it is what will help us manage our weight.

Emotional eaters are not always looking for food only when sad, even when happy their life revolves around food. Hey, eat and enjoy but know your limits.

Food is not your emotional anchor, give up that craving. Take control of your life and look towards your friends and family in the hour of need and not towards a bucket of ice-cream

It’s your life, take control and you decide how you live it.

We are here to counsel you, guide you, mentor you and help you. We believe in being your friend and your coach. Write to us (consult@choosemydiet.com), contact us anytime anywhere and we will help you overcome your emotion based eating disorders.

Life is beautiful– live it to the fullest. Your happiness is in your hands and will come from within you. so take the first step and say no to comfort food and say hello to a healthy life.