When I am sad I am all about the carbs. I will easily inhale 2 or 3 slices of bread in one go. Okay, maybe 3 or 4.
Fine. 4 or 5.
Fact is, I am an emotional eater and I am not ashamed to admit it.
Food and emotions go hand in hand after all. We stuff our pie-holes on dates, at weddings, funerals, parties and almost any social occasion you can think of. In most houses dinner is a time when the family comes together to catch up on each other’s lives, make important announcements or just companionably watch TV together. (That’s okay too you know.)
The other thing about emotional eating is that it works. If you scarf down some simple carbohydrates with some added fat or sugar (or both) you feel better. It’s how our bodies work. That’s why people serve food at funerals. It also helps to remind you that life goes on.
The problem of course, is that one needs to do this in moderation. Not the actual feeding your face bit – what’s the point of emotional eating if you’re going to do it moderately? – but the frequency of this occurrence. Otherwise you’ll get trapped in a very nasty cycle of eating when you’re unhappy and then being unhappy because you’re eating too much and then eating more because you’re unhappy and before you know it you will be as round as a ball and consuming everything that isn’t actually nailed down to the table.
I know this through painful experience that I got at great cost to my mental health and my butt.
If you’re sad all the time then you need to go see someone. You cannot eat your pain. That is something that you actually have to face, and deal with.
So by all means, have 3 teaspoons of sugar in your tea when you’re exhausted or traumatised. Eat an entire pizza AND a bag of popcorn in bed while reading your book. It helps, and you will feel soothed after a particularly rough day.
Just don’t think you can do this regularly and get away with it.
P.S If you want to go overboard with comfort food every now and again, you might want to balance it with proper eating habits on good days. Our sister site, Health24 has all the diet and nutrition tools you need to help you along the way. Good luck