It happens to all of us! A breakup, a bad day, an anxiety... and we finish the chocolate bar and some biscuits that were lying in the back of the pantry. This eating disorder is followed by a feeling of guilt and questioning... we eat without being hungry, only to console ourselves with comforting foods. It's called emotional hunger!
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According to Jeremy Gorskie, dietician, emotional hunger ‘is a hunger governed by negative emotions where one tends to console oneself with food.’ In this type of situation, food has an emotional dimension.
How to manage emotional hunger?
Emotional hunger is often followed by a feeling of guilt. Jeremy Gorskie advises us not to fight this emotional hunger. Indeed, ‘by letting it happen, one is able to take stock and take a step back.’ Fighting it only repels the desire to eat for a period, and it will eventually reoccur. It is therefore advisable to accept this hunger, to give in to it, and to ask why it has manifested itself, why this desire to eat appeared.
The negative emotions that cause emotional hunger determine the trigger. We must go back to the source of these emotions, understand what caused them in order to limit the appearance of these anxieties. The most important thing is to accept these negative emotions without denying them.
By understanding the origin of these crises, you will be able to better understand and anticipate them.
