How Can Emotional Stress Affect Eating Habits?
Emotional stress generally does not have a good effect on your diet. For example, we might pick up a bag of chips or a candy bar because the stress of our lives gets in the way so much that healthy eating is just not feasible. Although there are other reasons for sudden and unexpected dietary changes, such as lack of sleep, stress is one of the main causes for such changes.
The Institute of Psychological Sciences at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom conducted one study on college students who experience a great deal of emotional stress from their daily lives at college, which is revealing regarding how emotional stress affects eating habits.
The students within the study felt pressure to keep their grades up while attending one of the most prestigious universities in the United States. The late night studying and the pressure led many to lose sleep and change their eating habits.
The study suggested that students are very likely to grab food items that they know are not good for them, such as sugary snacks and potato chips, just to get them through. They lack the time to cook themselves a decent meal due to the amount of studying required of them.
Thus, while there were a number of reasons why the students did not eat properly, the findings of the study also indicate that emotional stress affects eating habits by causing people to eat in a less healthy way.
Emotional Stress and Eating
However, college students are not the only individuals under such emotional stress. As life becomes more and more fast paced for everyone, it has become abundantly clear that stress levels have risen and have led many to choose poor eating habits. These choices can have a great deal of effect on your body.
For example, with more and more households being raised by a single parent or where both parents work outside the home, it is often easier to deliver a meal in the evening by making poor and unhealthy choices. The emotional stress of having to do it all leads to more dinners of fast food and ready-to-cook choices that simply aren't as healthy as a well thought out meal.
Eating to Feel Better
Another problem arises when people who are sad eat to make themselves feel better. Who hasn't seen a TV show or movie where a character eats chocolate or ice cream after a breakup to console herself. These stereotypical decisions are based on real life examples of people whose emotional stress affects their diet.
How to Prevent Making Unhealthy Choices
The study done by the Institute of Psychological Sciences at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom identifies types of unhealthy eaters due to emotional stress.
Types of Unhealthy Eaters
However, there is a way to prevent unhealthy eating if you are able to identify the type of unhealthy eater you are. The types of unhealthy eaters are:
- The Overeater: This is the person who eats unhealthy and in excess amounts to make themselves feel better in order to relieve stress. Poor choices are made in order to make themselves feel better through comfort foods
- The Distracted Eater: This is the person who is affected by stress to the point where they simply do not pay attention to what they eat or how much of it they eat. For a college student, this is someone who eats while studying and fails to pay attention to what they are putting in their mouth. They are distracted by the studying and will continue to eat without paying attention to feeling full.
- The No Eater: For some of us the stress can get so bad that we lose the desire to eat at all. Losing your appetite and not eating anything at all can lead to a weakened immune system, tiredness, and irritability among other things.
The way to combat making unhealthy choices is to:
- Identify when your stress levels are elevating
- Take measures to make sure that you eat healthy
- Identify and be aware of how your emotional stress affects your eating habits
Continuing to let your stress levels rise and making poor eating decisions on top of it can send your stress levels even higher.