Difference between hunger and emotional hunger

Most people misunderstand the word ‘foodie’ and claim that their incessant eating is justified as they fall in the said category. Well, it is one thing to love food and explore different tastes and textures and totally another when food becomes your favourite stress buster. You seldom realise that your eating is triggered by your brain to counter impending stress. There is a term for this called ‘stress eating’ or ‘emotional eating.’  Here are some signs that can help you decide if you are one.

You feel hungry suddenly: Do you know the difference between hunger and emotional hunger? Physical hunger doesn’t make you go crazy with craving and it dawns slowly and steadily. But emotional hunger grips you suddenly and you are forced to give in to your desires. You fail to realise that you had a full course meal an hour or so before. However, if you haven’t eaten for long say five to six hours at a stretch then your hunger pangs are real.

You crave specific foods: When you are hungry even a simple dal-chawal seems like heaven, but emotional hunger pave the way for healthy eating. All you want is your plateful of pakoras, pizzas and pastries. There is a reason for this unusual craving. When you are stressed your body releases a hormone called cortisol that leads to binging. It increases appetite and also induces cravings for sugary and salty foods. It influences your food choices by binding to the receptors in the brain that trigger a craving for oily and sugary food. 

You don’t pay attention to food: Ever heard the term ‘mindless eating?’ That’s exactly what you do. Even before you are aware, you have finished one full plate of chicken biriyani, corn fritters and scooped out the whole bowl of blackcurrant ice-cream. And the worst part is you didn’t even spend enough time to relish the food and enjoy its real goodness. If it were true hunger, you would have been aware of what you are doing. 

You are never satisfied: All that food in your stomach just makes you feel stuffed, bloated and uncomfortable, and you are never satisfied or happy about your eating anymore.

You can’t get food out of your head: If you love food, you will make every attempt to eat healthily and give your body the right kind of nutrients. But once emotional eating overcomes your sanity you will eat anything and everything that comes your way — mostly high in sugar, carbohydrates and fats. And all you are thinking is what to order for your next meal. 

You feel guilty at the end: Because deep down you know that you are not doing yourself a great favour in being an emotional eater. You feel more stressed out, sad and uncomfortable, all of which are bound to make you guilty and also ruin the real love for food that you have (if you have any).
Here is what you can do to help yourself
If any of these signs are similar to what you face, then step back and take measures to control your eating habits. Here is how:

Know your triggers well: This is an essential part of your self-help therapy. But to do this you need to be very true to yourself. Little introspection and analysis about your lifestyle and your emotional health can help you know your triggers – workload, petty fights, boredom or just chronic stress anything can be your trigger.

Take a break: When the sudden hunger pangs get the better of you, get up and take a break. Walk around the corridor or reach out for your buddy whose cubical is at the opposite end. If you are at home and want to eat all of a sudden start doing your laundry or sort your wardrobe. Sure this will be a great diversion for you and laundry is something that is never ever done.

Be true to your feelings: If you are feeling low, unhappy, de-motivated – be true to these feelings there is no point in ignoring these emotions and trying to gulp them with extra cheese in your pizza. Instead, get help — either talk it out to people who are around you, pick up a hobby that gives you intellectual stimulation, or just try and spend some me-time to de-stress and compose your thoughts. Remember, this has to be a commitment to yourself and not a one-time effort.

Get enough sleep: There are two hormones in your body that regulate hunger and fullness — ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin stimulates appetite while leptin sends signals to the brain when you are full. However, lack of sleep can make your ghrelin levels go up, and your leptin levels go down. So you crave more food and overeat.

Maintain a diet diary: It is difficult for an emotional eater to maintain a diet diary as it reflects one’s dishonesty. This is a reason why most emotional eater will never maintain a diet diary. Because cheat meals aren’t a part of one’s daily diet. But if you can start having one, it can save you from falling prey to overeating.

Pamper yourself: Do you realise how you slipped from your priority list with time? You are not your priority anymore, one reason why stress has the power to get on to you. If you give yourself a little attention and love thyself, handling stress would come easy to you. So, go for that vacation, staycation, trekking or indulge in exotic spa treatments to rejuvenate yourself.

Get help: Your emotional eating could also be a sign that there are other mental health issues that are vying for attention. If all the self-help methods fail you, don’t waste time sulking, get up and get help. Go for a counseling soon.

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.    
 
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