Emotional Eating Making Peace with Food Counseling Techniques/Health Behaviors

The episode introduces the topic of emotional eating, differentiating it from celebrating with food and eating disorders. It emphasizes understanding emotional eating's beneficial functions and discusses why restrictive diets fail to resolve it. Emotional eating is described as eating in response to emotions rather than hunger, with common triggers including boredom, anger, or habit. Not all emotional eaters have eating disorders, but addressing emotional eating is key for those who recognize it as a problem.

Emotional eating offers various soothing effects. Primarily, it offers taste pleasure, but it also has psychological functions connected to early feeding experiences. Eating, particularly for infants, promotes bonding and releases oxytocin. It is associated with comfort and calming rituals, such as being fed before sleep, which can lead to habits like eating to wind down. Childhood eating experiences often involve exploration, reward, power, and control which can form lasting food memories linked to happiness or self-esteem.

The continuation discusses how cultural practices link food with care and celebration, enhancing emotional reliance on food. Evolutionary tendencies make humans crave high-calorie foods for perceived survival needs. The body's reaction to perceived food scarcity, such as slowing down metabolism, complicates things further, especially for those with eating disorders. Understanding the underlying causes of cravings and ruling out physical reasons like low blood sugar or lack of sleep is important for addressing emotional eating.

Identifying habits and patterns in emotional eating is crucial. This involves examining when and why a person eats, understanding the difference between snack habits and genuine hunger, and acknowledging scenarios that prompt mindless eating. For instance, watching TV or particular activities might trigger eating even in the absence of hunger. Recognizing these patterns can help break the cycle of emotional eating, while considering the initial physical or temporal triggers that lead to unnecessary food ingestion.

Interventions for emotional eating include maintaining a food diary to track times and emotions that prompt eating, encouraging mindful eating practices like using a plate and eliminating distractions, and reducing triggers for 'binge' behaviors. It’s noted that restricting foods can lead to increased desire, so finding a balanced approach to manage and occasionally indulge in 'comfort' foods is suggested to avoid feeling deprived.

Therapists are advised to encourage clients to distract themselves when they have the urge to eat emotionally and to identify underlying emotions contributing to eating behavior. They should focus on gradually changing habits, addressing both physical states like tiredness, and emotional states such as stress, to prevent eating as a response to these feelings. Acknowledging the importance of progress over perfection in reducing times of emotional eating is emphasized.

Methods for coping with distress that doesn't involve food include distraction, talking it out, or writing in a journal. Encouraging clients to find the positive aspects in situations, or learning from perceived failures, can help shift focus and reduce emotional eating triggers. Using thought-stopping techniques and evaluating whether distress is worth the emotional upheaval are steps toward better emotional management, thereby reducing reliance on eating for comfort.

Develop strategies to handle specific settings and triggers, like the holidays, that often promote overeating. This includes choosing lower calorie options, staying engaged in social activities to avoid eating out of boredom, rehearsing refusal skills for food offers, and staying mindful of hunger levels and emotional states during social gatherings. This proactive approach helps maintain control over eating habits even when faced with abundant food choices in social settings.