5 tips to avoid emotional hunger

The emotional hunger affects millions of people and conditions the relationship with food. In these cases, the act of eating stops responding to a physiological need and becomes a way of managing emotions, especially negative ones.

Unlike physical hunger, this type of intake usually appears suddenly and triggers an intense desire to consume sweets or unhealthy foods. If it is maintained over time, it can become a harmful habit for channelling emotions and generate consequences both physical and mental.
 

Why does emotional hunger appear?

Facing and managing feelings is often an uncomfortable and long process. Food is presented as a quick solution to discomfort, even though it is only temporary relief. These are some of the causes, mentioned by MedlinePlus:

• Difficulty managing emotions, especially negative ones, such as anger, sadness, loneliness or boredom.

• Self-esteem problems or dissatisfaction with physical appearance.

• Doing very restrictive diets.
   

In many cases, emotional hunger can be confused with binge eating, although they are not the same. Binge eating involves a more intense loss of control and is usually related to food restriction. In contrast, emotional hunger appears sporadically and is related to emotional management.

Signs to identify and manage emotional hunger

Often, emotional hunger episodes may appear suddenly and be difficult to control at the moment. Other times, they may be confused with real hunger and only identified after the eating episode.

To recognise this type of hunger, it is necessary to observe the body’s signals, such as the urge to eat, persistent thoughts or repeatedly opening the fridge.

To facilitate this recognition, a series of useful questions to identify emotional hunger can be considered, based on recommendations from the Center of Healthy Eating and Activity Research:

Consequences and how to end emotional hunger

Eating to regulate emotions is a habit whose consequences are often overlooked. However, people who tend to see food as an “escape route” run the risk of developing dysfunctional behaviours, such as eating anxiety, compulsive eating and binge eating.

At an emotional level, after an anxiety episode it is common to experience guilt, sadness or regret. In addition, these eating patterns can contribute to metabolic problems, such as overweight or obesity. In more severe cases, they can even lead to eating disorders.

The first step is to learn to differentiate physiological needs from emotional ones. Practising mindful eating, such as having 5 daily meals, reduces physical hunger.

However, this problem can only be addressed if the source of these impulses is identified and work is done on emotional management. For this, there are different strategies that allow reducing anxiety and channelling emotions in a healthier way.