Emotional Eating: What is it? How does it apply to you? How do we overcome it?
“April is Emotional Overeating Awareness Month,” proclaims Dr. Denise Lamothe, an emotional eating expert, clinical psychologist, speaker, and author.
“Emotional eating is eating for reasons other than hunger,” says Jane Jakubczak, a registered dietitian at the University of Maryland. “Instead of the physical symptom of hunger initiating the eating, an emotion triggers the eating.”
According to the WebMD network, “experts estimate that 75% of overeating is caused by emotions.” In its section about emotional eating, Medicine.Net addresses how we can identify eating triggers and break ourselves of this habit. It concludes, “By identifying what triggers our eating, we can substitute more appropriate techniques to manage our emotional problems and take food and weight gain out of the equation.”
Psychology Today offers an “Eating Disorders and Emotional Eating Test” (62 questions, 30-35 minutes) that will assess your eating habits to determine whether your relationship to food is healthy or damaging. It will also assess whether you have tendencies towards certain documented eating disorders.
The web site for Prevention Magazine features a section devoted to “Overcoming Emotional Eating” that includes over thirty articles.
Geneen Roth, author of Breaking Free from Emotional Eating, says “our relationship to food is a perfect reflection of our relationship to life itself.” She believes “the way to transform our relationship with food is to be open, curious and kind with ourselves instead of punishing, impatient and harsh.”