Emotional Eating
Making Peace with Food
Presented by: Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes
Executive Director, AllCEUs
Counselor CEs are available for this presentation at: https://allceus.com/member/cart/index/search?q=emotional+eating
Objectives
~ Define emotional eating
~ Explore emotional eating in terms of its beneficial functions and rewards
~ Discuss why restrictive diets do not resolve emotional eating
What is Emotional Eating
~ Eating in response to emotions and feelings other than hunger.
~ Eating AT someone (You made me do this)
~ Eating to forget/distract
~ Eating to feel better (release serotonin and dopamine)
~ Eating out of boredom
~ Eating out of habit
~ Not all emotional eaters have an eating disorder
~ You do not have to “binge” to be an emotional eater
Why is Eating So Soothing
~ Eating as an infant often involved closeness and parental attention (oxytocin)
~ Caregiver generally happy during feeding
~ Food may be associated with sleep (night time bottle)
~ Eating as a toddler
~ Exploration and mastery
~ Power and control
~ Formation of memories around foods
~ Unhealthy foods usually reserved for treats or rewards
Soothing cont…
~ Culturally we associate eating with caring and celebration
~ Low blood sugar an cause feelings of depression/anxiety which are quelled by food
~ Evolution predisposes the human body to crave high-sugar, high-fat, high-calorie foods for quick energy and to prepare for famine
What is Behind the Craving
~ First rule out physical causes
~ Low blood sugar (anxiety, irritability, fatigue)
~ Lack of sleep (sugar and stimulants)
~ Dehydration
~ Nutritional Causes
~ High carbohydrate/starchy foods: Serotonin, endorphins
~ Chocolate: Magnesium, serotonin
~ Fatty foods: Omega-3
~ Soda: Calcium
What’s behind…
~ Then rule out habits
~ Is there a particular time or activity that makes you crave this food?
~ Are there particular times you mimndLESSly eat?
~ Driving
~ Television
~ Are you going too long between meals then needing a sugar boost (which leads to a sugar crash…)
Emotional Eating Interventions
~ Mindful eating
~ Food diary
~ When eating…
~ Use a plate
~ Sit
~ Eliminate distractions
~ Focus on the food
EE Interventions cont…
~ Try to avoid setting up a binge by
~ Restricting certain foods
~ Buying a bunch of “comfort foods”
~ Going too long without eating
~ Initially distract (bath, walk, call a friend, facebook…)
~ Identify the emotions
~ If it is depression: Hopeless, helpless
~ If it is stress/anxiety/anger: Failure, Rejection, Loss of control, the unknown
General Coping
~ Develop alternate ways of coping with distress
~ Distract
~ Talk it out
~ Journal
~ Make a pro and con list
~ Focus on the positive
~ View failures as learning opportunities
~ Identify whether it is worth your energy
General Coping
~ Develop alternate ways of coping with distress
~ ABCs: A= _____ C= Emotional Reaction
~ Eliminate vulnerabilities
~ Be compassionate with yourself
~ Urge surf
~ Other tools
~ Close the kitchen
~ Brush your teeth
~ Meditate
ACT for Emotional Eating
~ What am I feeling/thinking
~ What is important to me
~ Will emotional eating get me closer to or further away from what is important to me
~ What other things could I do that would get me closer to my goals
Holiday Help
~ Choose lower calorie foods
~ Keep water or a low calorie beverage in your hand
~ Talk
~ Stay away from the buffet
~ Rehearse refusal skills
~ Pay attention to your distress meter.
~ Keep an index card with your coping mantra and two reasons you don’t want to eat.
Summary
~ Holidays bring out a lot of emotions for people
~ Some people struggle with depression, anxiety, jealousy, grief and anger during this time.
~ When constantly bombarded with high-fat, high carbohydrate foods, people are tempted to eat to feel
~ Calm
~ Happier
~ Numb
Summary
~ Emotional eating, like most other escape behaviors
~ Never addresses the underlying emotions and their causes
~ Often results in physical issues such as weight gain, poor sleep, reduced energy (sugar crash)
~ Some people try to “undo” emotional eating by restricting other calories which leads to a nutritional deficit and more cravings
~ Emotional eaters need to
~ First find a way to stop before they eat
~ Second identify the underlying reason for eating
~ Address the thoughts and emotions leading to the urges