It happens to everyone that after a good meal we continue to eat, eat some more potatoes, another cookie, continue with the snacks on the table, unknowingly eat a box of biscuits or an entire bar of chocolate. And we don't have to be Freud to understand that such attacks cannot have much to do with real, physical hunger and that our body then craves for some other type of food - the emotional one.
Dr. Doreen Virtue, a psychologist and clinical therapist for eating disorders, claims in the book "Food Cravings" that emotional overeating is the culprit behind all obesity, all deviance from a balanced diet, and all diet-related illness. In doing so, he joins the growing number of scientists and therapists who have been warning for years that the problem with excess weight and unhealthy eating is not just physical hunger, but goes deeper into the psyche and cannot be solved by counting calories, nor by promoting healthy eating.
Characteristics of emotional hunger:
It occurs suddenly - Physical hunger appears gradually, with signals in the stomach, emotional hunger comes suddenly, like an "attack".
It is focused on specific food - We have a need to eat a certain type of food and no substitute satisfies us.
Happening "above the door" - It starts in the mouth and the mind. The mouth wants to taste a pizza or a donut with chocolate. We think intensively about the desired food.
Automatic or absent food consumption - As if someone else's hand grabs the ice cream and puts it in your mouth (automatic eating) or you didn't even notice that you ate the whole box of biscuits (absent eating).
It is impossible to put it down - Emotional hunger asks for food immediately in order to alleviate the unpleasant emotion as soon as possible. It is associated with a disturbing emotion. The boss yelled at you. Your son has problems. Emotional hunger occurs in a distressing situation.
It doesn't let up even when you're full - Since we eat to numb unpleasant feelings, and not to feed the body, it often ends in overeating.
It encourages guilt - The paradox of emotional overeating is that you eat to feel better, and then you criticize yourself for eating biscuits, cakes... You promise yourself that you will make up for it ("I will exercise, diet, skip meals and so on - tomorrow") .
Bonus video:
