What is emotional eating?

Emotional eating can affect both males and females as well as children, individuals find themselves reaching for food to soothe or suppress negative feelings. This can have a detrimental impact to mental and physical well-being potentially leading to heightened feelings of shame or guilt. This can then lead to a cycle of excess eating and associated issues such as weight gain, diabetes low self-esteem leading to low mood and depression.

What causes it?

Anything from work place stress, relationship issues, financial concerns or physical health and wellbeing worries can be the root cause of your emotional eating. Negative emotions may lead to a feeling of emptiness or emotional void, food is believed to be a way in which we fill that void. Creating a false feeling of fullness or temper wholeness. Other factors include: 

•  Social isolation in times of emotional need. 
• Lack of engagement in stimulating activities that could reduce stress or sadness.
• Lack of understanding between physical and emotional hunger. 
• Use of negative communication relating creating a cycle of emotional eating. 
•  Changing cortisol levels in response to stress, leading to cravings.