Are you an Emotional eater?

The decision to start eating,what to eat,how much to eat and when to stop,are all controlled in a tightly regulated system in brain.The Hypothalamus part of brain regulates appetite and food intake.We have two ways of eating namely eating to live and eating to pleasure.Eating to feed an emotion(feelings) instead of physical hunger is considered as Emotional Eating.

 We also have our emotional and thinking brain:-

•  That responds to needs beyond calories,it help us form memories of food.
• It assigns an emotional value to food so that we get pleasure and reward from certain foods.

Reward and satisfaction associated with food consumption lead to dopamine production,the same chemical we release from gambling and sex.

An individual will repeatedly eat a particular food to experience this positive feeling of satisfaction.

The emotional satisfaction we get from food is so strong that it can override our metabolic brain,or the signal our brain receives that tells us we are full.This repetitive habit of eating favourite food leads to overeating and obesity.

The main culprit to this emotional eating behaviour in today's world is processed food or Junk food.

Food scientists blend the perfect proportion of fat,sugar and salt to find a bliss point.The point where a product has maximum texture,feel and taste to release highest amount of dopamine.This quality makes it irreristible, so you can't stop at one chip(in my case) ,or the food you are emotionally attached with.

Since processed foods are concentrated in calories and are low in bulky fibre,we consume more calories before our brain stomach senses we are full and that extra calories causes fat storage in body.

Your mood has a lot to do with many of the food you crave when you are not physically hungry and the factors that stimulate emotional eating are stress,depression,lonliness,frustration,and much more.

Stress for short period of time inhibits appetite,but in long run too much stress can increase it,trigger food cravings and cause weight gain.

So stop emotional eating and still if you are not able to leave that food find some healthy alternate to that food that causes less damage to your body.