Stress and anxiety eating: how to stop it

Learning not to overeat because of emotions, and if we do, then doing so correctly

Anxiety, anger, heartache, and boredom can sometimes be difficult to deal with.  Food is the quickest and most affordable way. A Stanford biology professor, Robert Sapolsky, explains that emotional eating is not due to lack of willpower, but to a biological mechanism: stress stimulates the release of glucocorticoids, which increase appetite. The bad news: when you are stressed, insulin levels are elevated, which can lead to body fat being stored in the abdomen. Abdominal fat is linked to metabolic and cardiovascular conditions. Furthermore, this strategy does not work because of guilt of eating that only reinforces negative feelings. Here’s how psychologists and nutritionists suggest dealing with emotional eating.

A ten-minute rule

An aspect of behavioral economics explains why we fail at avoiding overeating. Bounded rationality is to blame for everything – the brain is designed imperfectly: it often chooses the smaller, but instantaneous reward instead of the larger, but delayed reward. That is, cookies now, instead of a hundred years of living in the future. Stanford professor and best-selling author of The Willpower Instinct, Kelly McGonigal, suggests putting off eating cookies for ten minutes in order to regain control. When the brain perceives the cookie as a delayed reward, the excitement of the reward system decreases – and it will be easier to resist the temptation.

Invigorating activities

The taste, smell, and color of food dominate our thoughts when we think about it. A new stimulus can interrupt this pattern cycle. Several years ago, Australian scientists tested whether Tetris could do this, and participants’ appetites were reduced after playing it for three minutes. There isn’t a magic effect of a particular game: Tetris is just one example of a challenging task that changes the train of thought and decreases compulsive anxiety. It is possible to handle the same task in different ways. Similar to Tetris, clay modeling fills the mind with images other than food. The dynamic visual noise, consisting of a series of flickering black and white squares, makes it difficult to focus on eating. Movement generally helps to end the cycle of stress; it is not surprising that brisk walking helps to prevent overindulgence with chocolate.

Overeating in a proper manner

You usually crave HARMFUL foods when you’re emotionally addicted to food. However, the paradox is that these foods make you feel even more anxious, make you eat more, and make you less resilient to future stress. When stressed, you should eat foods that quickly and permanently satisfy your hunger, boost your mood, or at least suppress your desire to chew. As an example:

• Protein fills you up faster and lasts longer. Therefore, an egg-based breakfast is one of the best: it reduces the feeling of hunger between meals.
• Fruits and vegetables seem to protect against depression, whether because of vitamins C and E, which counter inflammation, or fiber, which reduces anxiety and improves the gut microbiome, which has been linked to mood.
• We crave fewer sweet things when there is a bitter taste like spinach. In addition, chewing gum for 15 minutes and smelling mint can help.
• Mediterranean diets prevent overeating, which may be due to the microbiome’s ideal environment. Mood is improved by many of its components. Omega-3 acids are found in fish and olives, which make us more resilient to stress. Nuts and seeds are rich in magnesium, which helps to cope with anxiety. Researchers are even exploring how omega-3s can prevent depression and suicide.
• Caffeine suppresses appetite and warm drinks provide the comfort we seek in food, even just holding a cup.

The 80/20 rule

A “all-or-nothing” approach to nutrition is not effective: severe restrictions increase appetite and anxiety, and you want to eat exactly what you are forbidden to eat. For avoiding this, nutritionist Lisa Young recommends the Pareto rule – the economic principle transformed into a dietary principle. It works like this in nutrition: each day you eat healthy, nutrient-dense foods (80% of the total energy value of the menu) and complement them with “shameful pleasures” like chips, chocolate, and wine (20%).

Packages should be avoided

If a meal seems like a snack rather than a full meal, we tend to eat more without noticing. Whenever it comes in a small package – too. The problem is that standardized portions make it hard to gauge how much you really want to eat. Spend a few weeks skipping packages. Nutritionist Svetlana Bronnikova suggests serving food in very large dishes or bowls so you can’t keep track of how much you’ve eaten. The first couple of times you will probably overeat. You can use this experience to help you notice how your body feels when you overeat.” By not focusing on the quantities, you will learn to eat what your body needs, not what the manufacturer advertises.

Evening plans

Overeating is most likely to occur in the evening. At this point, we’re tired, stressed, and depleted of willpower, which leads to overeating. You can better resist the automaticity of the habit if you prepare for the evening in advance: make a healthy dinner, decide what and with whom you will do. There is also a psychological technique that can help you eat less if something unexpected disrupts your plans for the evening – security priming. Remind yourself of those people with whom you share a safe, stable, and calm relationship, and that will relieve anxiety and excess appetite.

Power of Rituals

An experiment compared how well people who lose weight control themselves if they carefully monitor their diet or simply follow a simple three-step ritual before eating. Before eating food, you had to cut it; arrange the pieces on plates to achieve symmetry; touch the cutlery three times to the food before eating. A 200 kcal reduction in consumption was observed among participants who performed this ritual. In order to reduce anxiety, you can use this ritual or any other ritual you think of. The main thing is to do it regularly. 

Anxiety time

In managing stress with food, you practice emotional avoidance: you avoid difficult situations with food. You need to stop running. Acceptance increases anxiety tolerance and regulates emotional appetite. Don’t ignore your feelings anymore by setting aside 5-30 minutes every day for them. Feel your emotions as intensely as you can at this time, instead of suppressing them. Rest of the day is for peace of mind.