Specialist Dietitian Melike Çetintaş gave important information about the subject. Emotional hunger is actually a problem that we all experience from time to time. Most of the time, even though we are not physically hungry, we fill some gaps in our emotions with food. Especially when we are stressed, anxious or depressed, our desire to eat increases even more. We can examine the reason for this from two aspects, physiologically and psychologically.
Physiologically, when we are stressed, cortisol levels, which we call the stress hormone, increase in the blood, which reduces the secretion of serotonin, the happiness hormone. Since consuming carbohydrate foods releases the hormone serotonin, we may find ourselves at the beginning of sweets or pastries.
From a psychological point of view, we eat during depression and sadness to be happy, to fill the void in our emotions, and sometimes to suppress our anger. We can choose eating behavior to reward ourselves not only with feelings that evoke bad, but also when we are happy. However, the regret that occurs shortly after eating calorie foods causes the level of depression to increase. The person may feel worse than before they start eating.
Body, psychology and social conditions interact in humans. While gaining or losing weight affects our psychology, our psychology also affects our weight gain or loss. For this reason, diet and psychology are always intertwined. 'Psychodiy', a program we have created to change eating behavior, gives positive results in the treatment of emotional hunger.
Specialist Dietitian Melike Çetintaş continues her words as follows;
The solution to emotional hunger is to replace the eating behavior with another behavior. We can achieve this with some methods that we also use in psychodiet:
1- Give your subconscious positive suggestions
The unconscious part of the iceberg; in fact, it controls our behavior and our lives without us even being aware of it. The positive messages we give to the subconscious are processed over time and reflected on the consciousness, that is, on our behaviors. We can change eating behavior with these right messages. You can give suggestions to yourself during the day. For example, 'You can do this', 'You have the willpower not to eat this food', 'You are not hungry right now', You stand behind the decisions you make.' You can create suggestions that will increase your own motivation and instill self-confidence. By repeating these suggestions 2-3 times a day, you can see positive changes in your behavior by raising them to consciousness over time.
2- Walking and exercise also release the hormone of happiness.
Sports and exercise increase the secretion of the happiness hormone called endorphins. When you are stressed, take a short walk instead of eating. You can watch dance or Zumba videos online at home, and plan small exercises without going out. Many studies show that walking for 3 minutes, 30 days a week, has a protective effect against depression.
3- Breathing exercises are important
You are in a crowded environment, you are persistently offered food, or you are alone at home in front of the refrigerator, bored. Before you start eating the food you want to eat, do a little breathing exercise. Take a deep breath in through your nose and exhale slowly through your mouth like blowing out a candle. Repeat this several times. Imagine how you would feel after eating that food. Eating is a moment of happiness, and showing this will will provide you with a very long-lasting happiness.
4- Avoid low-calorie shock diets
When it comes to losing weight, people often think of hunger, detox, some mixtures and cures. In fact, the diets that provide the body with the best fat loss are the ones that we regularly eat the foods we consume at home, without calorie restriction, and sustainable diets. Applying a shock diet and restricting calories further increases the person's eating crises as it will create stress due to hunger. Instead, plan healthy main and snack meals for yourself. Add brown bread (such as whole grain, rye, whole wheat) to your meals to keep your blood sugar balanced
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