It can be difficult to tell whether you are eating because you are physically hungry or simply emotionally raw. Why? Because food is often used as a coping mechanism for negative – or even positive – emotions. While eating when physically hungry is healthy, emotional eating is not. In fact, it can contribute to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and eating disorders.
In this episode, I wanted to address a completely holistic approach to addressing and stopping emotional eating in its tracks including why you might be emotionally eating, nutrient deficiencies to correct, how to handle past trauma, lower stress in your life, and much more.
Because food is so abundant, it is easy to turn to it for other reasons than hunger - especially to avoid emotion, people, and intimacy. Another reason why people turn to food is to distract themselves from high levels of stress. Unlike our Paleolithic ancestors who faced short bursts of stress and then long periods of relaxation, the average American faces chronic, unrelenting stress – whether real or imagined. When stress hormone levels are high, the body naturally wants to consume food – particularly carbohydrates.
There are many psychotherapeutic approaches that mental health professionals have used to try to empower their clients to overcome this unhealthy lifestyle habit such as behavioral therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectic behavioral therapy, acceptance/ commitment therapy, and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. No matter the approach, the essential goal is to wean the client away from using food as a coping mechanism and help them replace this unhealthy habit with positive thoughts and actions. This requires coaching the client on healthy coping skills, such as journaling to evaluate true hunger, expressing emotions in a healthy way, building a support system, and maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle.
In this episode you’ll discover:
What actually is emotional eating and how is it different than true hunger?
Why do we crave sweet, salty, and fatty foods? And how do we stop the cravings?
Who is most susceptible to emotional eating? (this might shock you!)
Warning signs to find out if you are an emotional eater
What are the root causes of emotional eating?
How to identify and eliminate your Trigger Foods
How to identify and eliminate your Trigger Feelings
How to identify and eliminate your Trigger Environments
How past trauma leads to emotional eating (this is super important!)
Craig shares his own personal past trauma that lead to emotional eating
Other common causes of emotional eating and how to stop them
How is emotional eating diagnosed?
How is emotional eating/depression treated in conventional medicine?
7 ways to overcome the root cause of emotional eating
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