Conquer Your Cravings

Feelings can fuel our food choices, which may see us indulging in unhealthy options. Here’s how to remove emotions from the equation

What if we told you that it’s not a lack of willpower that’s causing you to reach for unhealthy foods, but a mental imbalance in your life? To regrain balance, you need to uncover and fix these emotional habits.

We’re all guilty of succumbing to a less-than-healthy treat every now and then. After all, there’s a reason for the phrase ‘comfort food’. But, if you regularly respond to life’s ups and downs by turning to ice cream or a bottle of wine, it could mean that you’re putting your head in the sand(wich) when it comes to your emotions.

“Emotional eating affects so many of us,” says Mel Wells, health and eating psychology coach and author of Hungry For More. “I’m fascinated by what leads us to do this. We think it’s our body telling us to eat, but often it’s our mind creating cravings, and telling us to avoid something that makes us feel uncomfortable or sad.”

Mel’s philosophy is that unhealthy eating habits are a symptom of a problem elsewhere; you need to explore to identify what it is you’re using food to replace or avoid.

Tune Into You

There are times in your life when you’ll eat even though you’re not hungry, but it’s worth tuning in to the reason if you’re regularly overeating.

Emotional eating has been linked to weight gain, binge eating and low self-esteem in various studies, and it can be caused by a range of feelings. Stress, in particular, is linked to a change in eating patterns, and a greater tendency to eat high-fat, high-sugar foods, according to one American study. Exhaustion is often a factor too – the reward centres of the brain in sleep-deprived people are much more likely to react to photos of unhealthy food than in those who are well-rested, says a study from Columbia University.