#limit #emotional #eating #pandemic #avoid #overeating #Christmas
Negative emotions, tension, stress and the accompanying excessive snacking are situations that have become particularly intense recently. For many people, recent events have caused many rapid changes, including: in organizing home and professional life, changing the rhythm of the day, completely different time management.
Does stress affect our eating habits?
It turns out that yes! Often, we do not even realize on a daily basis how quickly we start to consolidate new, not necessarily desirable habits related to the pandemic or quarantine.
The results of many studies and patients’ experiences clearly indicate that despite increasing nutritional awareness, easier access to guides and healthier products, the problem of overweight, obesity and low-quality diet is growing alarmingly in our society. Especially after the last quarantine that took place at the beginning of this year, Many people have found out how often they reach for food, not necessarily driven by the feeling of physical hunger.
In times of a pandemic, the challenge is not only the fact that we have more opportunities to snack – food is practically at our fingertips. The biggest challenge is the reasons why we reach for food and the quality of the products we eat in difficult timesi.e. with a predominance of sweet, processed products, which beneficially reduce the feeling of tension.
What role does food play in our lives?
Do we eat to reduce stress, fill a void, or maybe eating is a form of reward or pleasure? It has long been known that the act of eating is not only associated with physical hunger. Emotional hunger is more dangerous, when, on impulse, we unconsciously begin to reach for temptations.
Will this really be an effective method?
Let’s think about how we feel after eating the so-called temptation – “forbidden fruit“… It appears often low sense of effectiveness, frustration due to eating stress in an uncontrolled way and against one’s own rules. This is how we create and perpetuate VIcious CIRCLE OF EMOTIONS. Every day, when we try to control our way of eating, for example by being on a reducing diet or consciously choosing healthier products in the store, the problem of eating under the influence of emotions may not even pose such a threat to some people as in the current reality.
This is what can protect us so that the pandemic does not result in additional kilograms proper selection of products with appropriate nutritional and energy value and awareness of what makes us so willingly reach for food in a given situation.
Often, the excessive appetite we feel is actually the tip of the iceberg – what we can see from the outside. Meanwhile deeper there are all our needs and difficult emotions that influence our attitude towards food.
This picture of the situation shows how food becomes a big trap. It relieves the tension temporarily, but the problems remain.
Is it enough to say to yourself “I won’t eat”…
Definitely not! Yes, keeping temptations at home is certainly an effective way to reduce snacking, but the mechanism of the vicious circle of emotions still threatens us.
How to control the act of eating?
Above all answer these questions:
– In what situations do I reach for food? Evening time, conversation with the boss, no classes…
– Is it important to me what I eat? Do I prefer sweet, fatty products like chocolate bars?
– Do I control the portion sizes I eat? Can I only eat 2 cookies or do I eat until the last crumb?
– What other pleasures do I have that I can also use in difficult times?
The answers to the above questions will allow us to determine which moments become a threat to us and therefore more conducive to snacking. Can we avoid them or better prepare for them? How can we change our behavior when this impulse arises? Determining these stimuli is the best start to effectively change habits and control emotional eating.
It is worth remembering that not only stressful situations or quarantine contribute to excessive eating. It is possible that we eat food more often when we are bored, during social gatherings or in the evening – as an addition to a movie. The reasons may be various.
How not to overeat on Christmas?
The next challenge for many people will certainly be the atmosphere and temptations of the Christmas table. While previously the strategy of avoiding sweets by not keeping them at home may have worked, on such special occasions when our loved ones also encourage us to eat them, it is more difficult to keep moderation. How to cope in this situation, when there are so many temptations at your fingertips, and each refusal is associated with a sense of loss: “others eat and I have to refuse.” Analyzing the situations more carefully, it turns out that the problem is not only delicious dishes, but above all lack of sense of control over the number of portions consumed and lack of ability to assertively refuse. Assertive, i.e. resulting from respect for oneself, the right to express one’s own needs and expressed, above all, with respect towards the person offering the food.
Since so many threats and challenges related to food are associated with the pandemic and the holidays, what good can we do for our body?
It is certainly worth recognizing new opportunities in every situation, even the most difficult one. It is possible that staying at home more often will allow us to eat meals more regularly, choose the right ingredients, and be able to prepare our own meals.
It is worth ensuring that your daily menu is consistent rich in ingredients that will strengthen our nervous system, improve well-being and alleviate the symptoms of stress.
Let’s especially make sure that our menu includes products such as:
- Complex carbohydrates, e.g. buckwheat, oats – as a good source vitamin B6magnesium and zinc;
- Nuts and seeds – source tryptophan, tyrosine, magnesium, zinc and choline;
- Olive oil – which increases serotonin levels;
- Legumes as a source tryptophan, tyrosine, folic acid, vitamins. B6, magnesium, zinc;
- Sea fish rich in EFAs
- Pickles – rich in substances prebiotics, lactic acid and B vitamins; source of lactic acid and B vitamins
It is also worth including other products containing ingredients
with nutritional and physiological effects:
- Magnesium, which plays an extremely important role in the nervous system. Its deficiency may lead to muscle cramps, headaches and general irritability;
- B vitamins, that strengthen the nervous system. Vitamin B1 regulates the growth of nerve cells, prevents depression, calms downvitamin B2 adds energy, a vitamin B6 takes part in the synthesis of serotonin, relieves anxiety, and supports the absorption of magnesium.
- Zinc, which is needed for the production of many enzymes and hormones, including those controlling the nervous system.
- Tryptophan, which is necessary for the production of neurotransmitters: serotonin and Melatonin, which are involved in controlling mood and sleep.
- Rhodiola rosea –ingredients contained in Rhodiola rosea support the body during the period stress and increased physical exercisehave a positive effect on the system nervous, circulation blood, supplying cells with oxygen and nutrientsfunctions cognitive and mental.
- Chrome, which is involved in the metabolism of carbohydrates, proteins and fats, plays an important role in regulating blood glucose levels, thus indirectly helping to reduce the so-called attacks of “wolf” hunger.
- probiotics – It is not without reason that it is said that our gut is our second brain. It’s 80% in the intestines. serotonin is produced – a neurotransmitter responsible for our mood. That is why it is so important that the intestines are in good condition.
Probiotics, quality of diet, avoidance of processed products, sugar, white flour, more quantity fiber this will definitely improve the condition of our intestines and thus our well-being. After all, we are what we eat and how much of it we absorb.
As you can see, there are many situations conducive to snacking, but each time it is up to us to decide which solution we will choose. To make this choice correctly, the most important thing is to be at the top of the iceberg and look deeper into your emotions and desires, and if necessary, seek support from a specialist, including a psychodietician or psychologist.
Psychodietician Małgorzata Talaga-Duma
