It is essential to have a regular intake of food which provides the body with energy and nourishment. It would be difficult to perform our daily chores and our muscles would wilt and the neurological system fail, if it were not for food.

However, beside this essential need, food also serves the purpose of celebration, show of affection, love, as well as consolation in sorrow and despair. This phenomenon, known as emotional eating, can be the cause of several problems.

Emotional eating refers to the act of eating to combat an emotional state. Food is normally perceived as more than just a source of energy. Certain foods trigger a “feel good” factor in the brain and that is the start of problems, as some people use this to counter emotions such as stress, anxiety, joy, pain or even boredom, which they are unable to deal with.

Often, such individuals turn to eating as a means of dealing with ill feelings and when they put on weight as a result they go into depression and end up eating more, which can lead to serious disorders such as depression, obesity and weight gain. They then look for ways of losing weight quickly.

To know if you are an emotional eater, answer the following questions:

Do you resort to eating when you are feeling bad, bored or stressed, even if you are not really hungry? Are you constantly thinking of food to the point of obsession? Do you regularly attempt dieting without success leading to further depression or compulsively exercise to counter the guilt of overeating?

If the answer to any of these questions was ‘yes’, there’s a possibility of you being an emotional eater and a threat to your own health.

It is essential to recognize the problem. Subsequently, fixing the issue is both time consuming and requires persistence as you need to break the bad eating habits and imbibe good habits including a program of weight loss exercise.

Self deprivation, or fasting to lose weight, will not serve the purpose as the failure of such a strategy will only lead you to further eating due to depression.  So the focus should be on finding ways to cope with overbearing emotions, such as, finding a new hobby, keeping oneself busy at work or even chewing gum. If necessary you should consider approaching a psychotherapist for professional help.

With the act of replacing comfort eating habits with other responses, you will end up feeling much better, both physically and emotionally. A welcome outcome of all this will be a healthy life and a slimmer, fitter body.