A recent study conducted by a neuroscientist at Florida’s Scripps Research Institute shows that humans can become addicted to foods high in fat, salt and sugar. This addiction works similarly to a drug addiction, research suggests. Scientists explain that binge eaters associate junk food with happiness, a common behavior among emotional eaters. We talked to certified health counselor Erica Duryea about her personal experience with emotional eating and what you can do if you feel like you are struggling with this issue. When she was only 25 years old, she was diagnosed with malignant melanoma, a form of skin cancer. Little did she know, it was only the beginning of her life’s mission. As a teenager, she would lose control of what was going in her body, and eventually, she lost control over her life when she allowed an emotional dependency on food to control her. Today, she’s a certified health counselor, a cancer survivor and recovered emotional eater who has found her calling to help women with the same struggles. While it took a severe diagnosis to push Erica to help herself, you can help yourself now.
NSD: Can you explain the connection between human emotions and food?
ED: It’s when someone feels unstable, unhappy and off kilter that he or she chooses foods that are very refined. When someone is lonely, they’re going to go for foods that are comforting, which are foods that are very high in sugar, fat and carbohydrates. Those foods do not promote a connection with oneself and the body reacts to it almost like a drug—when the body gets it, the body wants more. It helps us shut off what we’re really feeling with an immediate, yet temporary, satisfaction.
NSD: How do you identify that your eating has become a problem?
ED: When you turn to food to take the edge off, that's when it becomes a problem. Certain foods that may seem comforting may not really sustain us and may even make us feel guilty. You might get a feeling of not being in control of your relationship with food or not being able to stop. For example, when you feel down, you go to the fridge. We should see food as nourishment, fuel for our bodies and spirits. It should provide a pleasurable experience and it shouldn’t be a crutch for us.
NSD: If someone thinks that they have a problem with emotional eating, what should they do about it?
ED: To a great extent, people are not aware that the type of service that I provide is available. As a health counselor, I work mostly with young women to help them understand the emotional connection with food and how it impacts their body. I had no idea of the options when I was younger. If someone is struggling with emotional eating, it’s a great benefit for them to know that this type of counselor is out there. You have to acknowledge that if you’re struggling with this issue, it’s not a problem that will just go away by simply adopting better eating habits.
NSD: What if someone is afraid or intimidated by seeking professional help?
ED: The first thing to do is to start paying attention to eating patterns. Start making lists of trigger foods and trigger emotions. Make a list of foods that you notice make you feel a certain way when you eat them (e.g. You feel fat and guilty after eating pizza or ashamed and stressed after eating fries). Include positive ones as well (e.g. You feel healthy and alive when you eat vegetables). Next, make a list of foods you eat when you feel a certain way (Ex: When you’re sad, you eat cookies or ice cream). Lists allow you to see the connection between the food you eat and your emotions, and likewise, feeling a certain way and eating a certain food. Eventually, you will begin to see which foods provide a positive emotional result and which foods provide a negative emotional result. When you start to understand the connection, you’ll move away from these processed foods and move toward a more traditional diet.
NSD: If someone has struggled with emotional eating in the past and finds that they’re reverting back to old habits, what can they do?
ED: I would recommend that they develop other practices aside from going directly to food, like taking a walk, meditating, making a phone call or drinking a cup of tea. These activities are going to do a lot more for them than rushing out to get something sugary or fatty. Once we’ve done those things, we reach an awareness of what we’re struggling with and what’s bothering us. It’s when we’re in connection with ourselves that we’re able to make good choices that support our health both physically and emotionally.
NSD: Does emotional eating affect women more than men?
ED: I think it affects both women and men—it’s a human nature thing. We’re actually battling two things here, it’s not just the emotional connection, it’s also the fact that modern day foods are working against us because of how they’ve been made. The food industry has evolved in such a way that there’s more and more food available to us that has been further and further removed from what traditional food should be. Snack foods and processed foods have been made to be addictive to us. It only makes it harder for everyone.
NSD: Can you appear healthy and still emotionally eat?
ED: Absolutely, it’s very common. You can be someone who counts your calories, exercises a lot, eats right and has a slender physique, but you can also be someone that goes home at night and nurtures your wounds by eating to heal an emotional issue rather than to nourish yourself. Emotional eaters eat when they’re not hungry and eat out of sadness, boredom or to deal with stress. Just as well, if someone is overweight, it does not automatically make them an emotional eater. It’s really something that can affect anybody.
For more information on seeking professional help and a free trial consultation, visit WellnessRealized.com.
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