How To Stop Emotional Eating

Eating to soothe our feelings is natural and normal. 

Human beings have been doing this forever. Food is more than fuel. It’s a source of joy, social connection, and comfort. If we eat a bag of chips after a stressful day from time to time, it’s not the end of the world. 

If it becomes a regular habit to numb out negative feelings with food and it begins to impact your health, it’s time to do something about your emotional eating. 

Constant emotional eating is not a sign that you’re weak. It’s a sign that your anxiety, sadness, boredom or burnout has become so painful for you that you’re desperate for relief. Food is a quick way to get a rush of feel-good chemicals in your brain so it becomes your go-to source of relief. 

So much advice around emotional eating focuses on distraction. Go for a walk! Drink some water! Eat a healthier alternative! But none of these strategies address the root cause of your emotional eating - your emotions. 

So how do you stop emotionally eating? Get support for your mental health. Learn how to feed yourself with foods that lower anxiety and regulate the mood. Get tested for nutritional deficiencies and hormonal imbalances that can impact mental health. Get help coming up with a list of supplements and natural remedies that can address your anxiety, stress or sadness. Try acupuncture that focuses on calming down your nervous system. Get help figuring out how to cope with stressors in your life.  

These are some of the ways that I help my patients every day with their emotional eating as a naturopathic doctor. 

Do you have questions about emotional eating? Click the button below to contact me. 

Struggling to Lose Weight: Looking Beyond Calories

Research continues to come out showing that there may be more to the weight loss equation than the simple idea that we just need to burn more calories than we eat to lose weight. A 2015 paper was published that found that Americans nowadays are struggling more to manage their weight compared to a few decades ago – even if they eat and exercise to the same extent and consume similar amounts of protein, carbohydrates and fats.

This study found that while many Americans are consuming more calories now compared to four decades ago, there are other important factors that could be contributing to the rise in BMI and weight in the population. Here are some of the factors that scientists are considering:

• Stress and poor sleep may impact hormones in a way that makes it harder to lose weight.

• Toxins in the environment may impact the way your body uses calories. These are chemicals that can be found in household products and food and they may interfere with weight management.

• More of the population is on medications that could contribute to weight gain.

• The types of good bacteria in the gut may have changed in the population over the decades and this may be influencing the amount of calories that the body extracts from the diet - leading to weight gain.  

A lot more research needs to be done on these non-diet and non-exercise factors but it’s definitely exciting that our view of weight management is expanding. This could be really valuable information for those who feel like they are eating and exercising appropriately and still struggling to manage weight.

Do you have more questions about this topic? Click the button below to get in touch.

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