Emotion And Food
What is the link between emotion and food? Sadness, anger, happiness, fear, pride, surprise… these are all emotions that can have an impact on your diet. On a daily basis, they play a determining role in the way we eat. We don’t eat just to survive or keep our bodies functioning. The relationship with food is much more complex. We can talk about emotional eating when our emotions dictate our eating behavior. Let’s dissect the link between emotion and food!
Food gives rhythm to our lives.
We eat on average 3 to 4 times a day. And each time, we must know that all our senses are alert. Each of these, in their own way, stimulate our appetite. Sight, smell, touch, hearing and of course taste, which, remember, is the last one in this process.
First, our thinking puts our digestive system on alert. We salivate before we even have the slightest food in our mouths. Then, our sense of smell and hearing intervene. They allow us to visualize, understand and want to consume a food or a dish. Touch can also wake you up, it all depends on the menu. Holding a crumbly cookie in your hands or feeling the texture and consistency of a strawberry for example.
Finally, comes the final stage of the appetizer where the sense of taste comes into play. We then perceive the flavor of food: salty, sour, bitter or sweet.
When emotion and food merge…
What we eat can affect our emotions. But our emotions play a role in how we eat on a daily basis. Food and emotions are therefore closely linked. Eating can thus be a kind of refuge, to soothe certain negative and positive emotions or sensations.
–What we eat arouses various emotions.
Various positive or negative emotions can occur when consuming a food. For example,
Positive emotions:
- the pleasure of company for a meal,
- the pride of having cooked for your family
- the relief of soothing this feeling of hunger that is tormenting you,
Negative emotions:
- we feel fear when eating an unfamiliar food,
- the guilt of eating a forbidden food
- disgust at a food that reminds you of a bad memory,
–Certain emotional states can influence the way we eat!
Stress, worry, anger, sadness, fatigue… Emotions felt more or less intensely depending on the situation and the individual.
Certain emotions push us to consume comfort foods, very sweet, very salty, in greater or lesser quantities. Other emotions may also ruin your appetite.
Our hormonal system plays a role in our relationship with food. Dopamine is a neurohormone produced by the hypothalamus, it is the pleasure hormone. Eating foods that reassure you releases dopamine, the hormone of happiness and well-being.
Be careful, however, not to run away from your emotions, even if they have an impact on your diet. Denying them will increase your frustration level. Both in the frequency of your emotions and in their intensity.
Emotion and food: prohibitions, diets and behavioral disorders.
Want to lose weight ? Stop consuming this or that food out of conviction or principle?
Be careful, the bigger and more difficult the ban is to maintain, the greater your attraction to the food in question will be. You then enter an infinite circle called cognitive restriction.
Deprive yourself of something you love… You will then consciously or unconsciously want this food, which is forbidden or bad for your health. At some point, you will fall for this forbidden food and generally in excess! Instead of consuming a square of chocolate after your coffee, you will consume the bar in front of the television. And then you will trigger a feeling of guilt. Your self-esteem diminishes with each failure, and you go back to “dieting” because you will not have achieved your goal.
The idea is to identify your needs. To eat everything while following your eating sensations. To respect your hunger and satiety. It’s important to eat AND treat yourself! Eat mindfully to be healthy and feel good!
Finally, listen to your body, watch your bad habits, take care of your meals, exercise, slow down the use of screens and above all, and don’t dare to seek the advice of a professional if you are not feeling well!
For more mindfulness tips, click here.
I hope you enjoyed this overview of the link between emotion and food and found it useful. Comment down below what you think, or share with us tips you know of to overcome emotional eating.
Looking forward to reading your comments, sending you love and positive energy!!!
