Craving to quench our feelings
When you’re stressed what is the first thing you reach for? Chips, chocolate, booze? Sure as crap is not a head of broccoli. Unless you plan on smothering it with cheese, we tend to crave the salty and sweet in times of stress.
Does it ever actually make you feel better? Is it the food, or that you took your mind off the stress and put it on what you were eating?
I excluded alcohol from my search for the sole reason of the addictive quality- this is something I intend on addressing in another post. For now I am solely focusing on foods.
So why are you hungry from stress?
One of the reasons you come home from a long, stressful and all you want is sugar/salts/anything fried could be because of what you are eating during the day. Yeah a smoothie and a salad sounds healthy, but the caloric intake of those alone may not be meeting the physical demands on the day.
Your body is burning about 1600 or more calories a day just by existing. Depending on the nature of your job you could also be burning more (delivery/teaching/nurses/etc) could all have extra calories you may not be considering. So those cravings could strictly be hunger based.
Also- STRESS BURNS CALORIES. You may be thinking “then why don’t i look like a Victoria Secret model’- well those girls don’t even look like that all year round. But that’s a point for another day. Stress is not going to burn hundreds of calories like some workouts, but it is a type of physiological arousal and that can increase your basal temperature=your body burning calories to raise its temperature.
The not so simple reason you may be hungry
Cortisol can be produced in response to stress. Especially if you’re someone who already has high levels of cortisol. As your cortisol levels increase, there is research suggesting ghrelin increases as well. Ghrelin is the hormone that tells your body you are hungry. There is the connection my friends. Cortisol can also influence your body’s response reactions to fats, carbs and proteins (like where they go and how they are utilized).
https://www.endocrine-abstracts.org/ea/0022/ea0022oc3.5.htm
Fat and sugary foods have a chemical response to the brain that seem to dampen the effects of stress. Making them ‘comforting’ options to binge on. There is also research on carbohydrates acting as serotonin. So stress eating- can stimulate neurotransmitters that make you happy! Which is why it helps in the short term. But not long term.
So to sum this all up- your fight or flight response kicks in to ease the levels of stress, which is why you go for your comfort food whatever it may be. The stress, stimulation of eating, or whatever you are doing to distract from the stressor keeps your mind off eating and you can get lost in your consumption. Which can lead to overeating, possibly weight gain and this can all have lasting effects on your cortisol levels.
Why do we overeat?
Well….most science points to habits and distraction. I am not here to advocate sitting in an empty room and solely focus on your food and chew ‘30 times’ before swallowing or whatever people are saying. I hate that, it’s boring, I need more stimulation cause I have the attention span of a goldfish. What I am advocating for……just remember your eating while you’re doing something else. Put the bag just so slightly out of reach between bites. OR dont take the bag with you, put your snack in a bowl and mindlessly eat that. A controlled portion. If you REALLY want more, then you’ll have to get up and weigh out how important that second portion is.
The brains response and why this is a habit
Behavior is learned. Behavior responses….learned. Stress+chips=release of stress. You do this enough, your body will continue to crave this comfort food because it has learned too. So adjusting this is going to require some behavioral changes on your part to relearn adjustments. Keep reading for some recommendations on tactics to adjust your stress eating to another behavior. Because thats how you change, replace the undesired behavior with a more desirable one. YOU just have to determine what is more desirable.
What should you do about it?
Well, if you’re hungry, eat. Just be more mindful about the amount and WHY you are doing it. Being aware is the first step and you can begin to work on different coping mechanisms such as
1. for starters- what I listed earlier about putting your snack in a bowl or the bag out of reach.
2. find an app that helps with stress, if you’re a meditator do that. Sometimes the last thing you want to do when you’re stressed is sit in silence though.
3. download one of the many therapy apps and talk to the robot, they’ll never share your secrets. Or find a therapist, talking it out with a trained professional is a great idea and they will also never share your secrets.
4. download an app game like candy crush or something where you can get your mind off it instead of mindlessly eating.
5. cook a full dinner/meal instead of diving into the chips.
6. get some sunshine, get outside and go for a run or walk. Workout, listen to music- this is another great outlet for stress.
7. pet your dog/cat/lizard/chia pet..whatever you got. Or hug a stuffed animal! It doesn’t matter how old you get, a hug from a teddy will always ease some stress.
**Also- probably my go to recommendation (ESPECIALLY FOR OTHERS WITH IBS COUGH COUGH)…..drink water first. There is a good chance you’re dehydrated and not hungry. If you drink that water and your hungry goes away, good. Then you didn’t add in extra calories for no reason. Sometimes IBS hunger can be a trap (if you know you know) and drinking water or even a low sugar juice is a great way to determine the kind of game your intestines are trying to play.
All in all, just be more mindful. Hopefully this helps you recognize what you indulge in may just be a learned reaction.