In our last nutrition tips article we talked about the paradox recently making waves around leucine and hypothetical heart health issues. This week’s article is about something that hits closer to home for me personally and many of the clients I have worked with around emotional eating. By no means am I therapist or someone qualified to offer therapy for emotional eating, but I have personally struggled with it along the way in my own wellness journey and many individuals that I work with to optimize their nutrition/nourishment habits have dealt with this as well. It can be quite common!

If you know, you know. It can be hard to explain numbing or addiction to something that helps you pull yourself out of pain to someone who hasn’t experienced it. What can seem even tougher is trying to replace it with something more positive as a coping mechanism. There are lessons to be learned by this in modern society, with numbing agents all around us—whether through food, pharma, social media, or avoidance via gadgetry taking the edge off real social interactions. The pull to numb or avoid unpleasant feelings is a universal human experience, yet the ways we choose to cope can significantly impact our health and well-being. Today, we're zooming in on food, not just as sustenance or pleasure, but as a common numbing agent for those grappling with emotional eating issues.

There are indeed many things you can do to make things better and change your relationship with emotional eating and food. The most impactful interventional step I have ever encountered is mindfulness based interventions (MBIs). This can be an incredible tool for decreasing the arousal and pain, regaining control, and making clearer and more focused healthy choices for yourself.

Mindfulness-Based Interventions: Mechanisms of Change

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) offer a profound shift in the way people interact with their thoughts, feelings, and the triggers that lead to emotional eating. The mechanisms through which MBIs exert their beneficial effects include:

1. Increased Self-awareness: By cultivating a moment-to-moment awareness, you can learn to observe your thoughts and feelings without immediate reaction, allowing for a more reflective rather than reflexive response to emotional triggers.

2. Breaking the Autopilot Eating Cycle: Mindfulness interrupts the habitual cycle of emotional eating by fostering an intentional relationship with food. This mindful approach encourages eating in response to physical hunger cues rather than emotional cues.

3. Emotion Regulation: Through practices such as mindful breathing and meditation, managing stress and reducing the intensity of emotional responses can help decrease the reliance on food as a coping mechanism.

4. Developing Non-judgmental Acceptance: Cultivating an attitude of kindness and compassion towards oneself is a cornerstone of mindfulness (SELF COMPASSION IS A BIG PART OF THIS). This acceptance can mitigate feelings of guilt and shame associated with emotional eating, thereby promoting a healthier self-image.

Previous trauma plays a significant role in the development and perpetuation of emotional eating. Traumatic experiences can disrupt normal emotional regulation processes, leading to an overreliance on external coping mechanisms that may not be as healthy, such as numbing with food, for emotional relief. Key aspects include:

• Hyperarousal and Emotional Numbing: Trauma can leave you in a state of heightened anxiety or emotional numbness, where food serves as a means to control these distressing emotional states.

• Avoidance Behaviors: Trauma survivors may turn to emotional eating as a way to avoid traumatic memories or feelings, using food as a temporary escape and soothe.

• Impaired Sense of Self: Trauma can affect self-esteem and body image, contributing to disordered eating patterns as a way to exert control or even punish oneself.

Addressing trauma is a critical component of healing emotional eating, often requiring professional support to navigate the complexities of trauma and its effects on behavior. This is outside are scope, but we work with skilled counselors that are qualified to help here with great results when you work through the trauma in a way that is best for you. This is different for everyone.

For those looking to manage emotional eating, here are three simple, actionable steps we have seen be quite helpful and you can start right away:

1. Keep a Food and Mood Diary: Start tracking what you eat and how you feel before and after eating. This can help identify triggers for emotional eating.

2. Practice Mindful Eating: Begin meals with a moment of slow breathing to tap into what your current state is or a moment of gratitude; eat slowly; and savor each bite, paying attention to the flavors, textures, and sensations of fullness.

3. Establish a Supportive Routine: Regular meals and healthy snacks that nourish your body steadily throughout the day can stabilize blood sugar levels and reduce cravings, mood swings, and the likelihood of some types of emotional eating. Incorporating daily mindfulness practices like meditation can be absolutely instrumental and as little as 10min before bed or when you wake up before starting your day can be all that is needed to begin to carve a better path.

If you need help figuring out what will work best for your body and goals, we have been helping folks from all walks of life for many years do just that. We will soon have spots opening for our holistic health coaching program right around the corner in April of 2024 to commence in May right after our healthy eating basics seminar + Q&A. If you want to take the guesswork out of nutrition and what will work best for you and your wellness goals, we would love to help you!

Sign up here to reserve a spot at the FREE seminar

This seminar is absolutely free and you may bring a guest if you like as well. Personal Healthy Eating Guides are an option when you sign up.

Articles referenced:

• Katterman, S.N., Kleinman, B.M., Hood, M.M., Nackers, L.M., & Corsica, J.A. (2014). Mindfulness meditation as an intervention for binge eating, emotional eating, and weight loss: A systematic review. Eating Behaviors, 15(2), 197-204.

• Brewerton, T.D. (2007). Eating disorders, trauma, and comorbidity: Focus on PTSD. Eating Disorders, 15(4), 285-304.

• Guerrini-Usubini A, Cattivelli R, Scarpa A, Musetti A, Varallo G, Franceschini C, Castelnuovo G. The interplay between emotion dysregulation, psychological distress, emotional eating, and weight status: A path model. Int J Clin Health Psychol. 2023 Jan-Apr;23(1):100338. doi: 10.1016/j.ijchp.2022.100338. Epub 2022 Sep 22. PMID: 36199369; PMCID: PMC9512843.

• Warren JM, Smith N, Ashwell M. A structured literature review on the role of mindfulness, mindful eating and intuitive eating in changing eating behaviours: effectiveness and associated potential mechanisms. Nutr Res Rev. 2017 Dec;30(2):272-283. doi: 10.1017/S0954422417000154. Epub 2017 Jul 18. PMID: 28718396.