Don’t beat yourself up over emotional eating

SALT LAKE CITY – Emotional eating tends to have a bad rap, but it’s actually a very natural human function. If you consider yourself an emotional eater, don’t beat yourself up over it.

In the latest Let’s Get Moving with Maria podcast episode, Maria Shilaos spoke with Health Counselor and Certified Nutritionist Jennifer Olejarz to learn why we might need to change our perspective on emotional eating.

Emotional eating happens not because of physical hunger but because of stress or any negative emotion. Rather than looking at what our body is feeling, we look at what our mind is feeling.

“The wires get mixed up, so it’s not always easy to tell when it’s physical or when it’s emotional,” Olejarz said.

Many people view emotional eating as something to avoid or feel guilty about. However, Olejarz says it’s normal to eat in response to our emotions.

We release dopamine when we do something that helps us survive. That’s why we feel good when we eat and want to eat more sugar and salt. Additionally, our body feels under threat when we’re stressed, and that makes us feel like we need to manage that stress.

Olejarz says we shouldn’t look down on ourselves for eating emotionally because nothing good will come from doing so.

“That’s the part that gets us stuck because that can lead to disordered eating behaviors that we don’t even realize,” Olejarz said. “All that does is activate parts of our brain that put us in restriction, and this actually increases our cravings.”

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