Why does stress make us overeat? & bull; hello healthy

Sometimes it happens after getting a warning from the boss about office project deadlines. Or, arise after you recently separated from your lover. Whatever dilemma you face, all you know is that all you want to do is: eat, eat, and… eat whatever is right in front of your eyes.

"It is very humane for someone to want to avoid pain and be disappointed by seeking help through food," said Min-Hai Alex, a registered dietitian and nutritionist and founder of Mindful Nutrition in Seattle, United States, as reported by the Daily Burn.

If you are familiar with this, you are not alone. The tendency to overeat that is triggered by stress and negative emotions is known as emotional eating.

What is emotional eating?

Overeating under the influence of stress is one symptom of what mental health professionals call atypical depression. However, many people who do not have a diagnosis of clinical depression or other mental health issues also experience these behaviors when dealing with chronic or momentary stress.

Emotional eating is the tendency that a person feels to respond to stress by eating - even when not hungry. The activity of eating is intended as an escape to comfort, a way of relieving stress, or as a "gift" to yourself, and not to satisfy hunger.

Overeating when you're emotional can also serve as a distraction. If you are worrying about a particular event or feeling upset about a conflict, for example, you will tend to focus on just chewing your favorite food in an effort to improve your mood, rather than having to deal with the annoying situation. Just like when you are bored and finally choose to switch TV channels until your favorite TV show starts again.

Why stress can trigger a habit of overeating?

In the short term, stress can actually kill your appetite. A structure in the brain called the hypothalamus produces the hormone corticotropin, which suppresses appetite. The brain also sends signals to the adrenal glands to release adrenaline. Adrenaline helps trigger the body's "fight or flight" response - a physiological condition that temporarily overrides the need for food.

If stress is prolonged, the brain actually orders the adrenal glands to release cortisol, which plays a role in increased appetite and also motivation in general (yes, including motivation to eat). Stress also messes with the appetite-regulating hormone, ghrelin.

When you are under stress, you tend to get out of control and feel overwhelmed - which can creep into your diet. This is why eating when emotions respond to stress by eating foods that are high in carbohydrates, high in calories, and contain low nutritional value, aka junk food (such as ice cream, cookies, chocolate, chips, french fries, and pizza) instead of continuing your usual diet.. You worry about the past or the future, regardless of what you consume in the present.

Stress also drains the cognitive resources you need to stay focused and resilient, as well as to put into practice creative thinking for the sake of solving the problem. That is why finishing two pans of your favorite chocolate cake will feel easier to do than having to exhaust your energy and mind to design a problem-solving plan.

Once the stress episode is over, your cortisol levels will drop too, but if the stress doesn't go away - or if your stress response mechanism continues to fire - your brain will continue to produce high amounts of cortisol. What's more, if anxiety is also disrupting your sleep, lack of sleep can drive your appetite even more.

Whatever emotions drive you to overeat, the end result is the same. These negative emotions will return, and you may bear the added weight of guilt over ruining your diet plan. It can also plunge you into a vicious cycle - emotions trigger you to overeat, you continue to beat yourself up for these habits, you become even more stressed, and to deal with stress you return to overeating.

What can be done to control emotional eating?

Once you realize that you will start gobbling up whatever food is in sight when you feel down, immediately turn your attention from food to other things you can do until the urge to overeat passes. For example, chatting with friends, reading books or magazines, listening to music, taking an afternoon walk or jogging, meditating or practicing deep breathing, playing games, cleaning the house, or keeping a journal.

Having a food journal helps you to keep track of what you eat and when you eat, as well as what thoughts or emotions you feel at each meal. That way, you may find out what sparked you and the patterns. For example, you may find that you tend to overeat when faced with social pressure, such as when other people encourage you to continue eating - at large family gatherings or other formal events, for example - or for the sake of "coercing" you to merge with a certain group.

When willpower and determination are not enough, try these tricks:

1. Eat oranges

When you have sugar cravings, try eating mandarin oranges. Mandarin oranges only have 50 kcal. Not only will they satisfy your sugar cravings, they also give you something to work on to distract your mind. Peeling and smelling an orange creates a meditation moment to help calm you down.

This fruit is also rich in vitamin C. You need vitamin C to strengthen immunity, especially when dealing with stress.

2. Snacking on nuts

If you prefer something crunchy, consider pistachios as a healthy snack alternative to a packet of potato chips. Pistachios are a type of nuts that are low in calories, but are enriched with good fats and fiber, and help regulate blood sugar.

This way, you won't have a sugar spike that makes you even more hyperactive and anxious, and then fall again quickly.

3. Look at the red ones

The color red is associated with "stopping" or prohibition, so looking at something that is bright red sends a strong signal to our brains: stop.

Try serving food on red plates or just attaching a red warning board on the refrigerator door. Even if these tricks aren't working enough to stop you, they will make you more aware of your bad habit.

4. Drink black tea

Drink a cup of warm black tea. Black tea has been shown to reduce cortisol levels in the body. Take just a minute to do some light breathing exercises. Turn off your cellphone and laptop, take a break from your daily routine. All of this will help control the amount of cortisol you mess up due to stress.

5. Exercise

An important step in managing stress is exercise, as regular physical activity tends to reduce the production of trigger hormones and may even help reduce the risk of depression, anxiety, and insomnia, in addition to reducing the tendency to engage in emotional eating.

6. Get help

For those who may need help with stress, stress management counseling in the form of individual or group therapy can be very useful.

Stress counseling and group therapy have been shown to reduce stress symptoms and improve overall health. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been found to be effective as a part of medication to combat the habit of overeating under the influence of stress. This approach helps to relieve stress by helping to reconstruct the way a person thinks or thinks about certain issues.