Food & Feelings

What Drives A Person To Eat When The Body Doesn’t Need Food?

- Rachel Sheridan

Lina Swamy, PWD type 2 from Mumbai, India, managed her diet carefully during the day. She portioned food thoughtfully, read food labels, and tracked carbohydrates. But at the end of the day, her stress set in. Four years after she was diagnosed with diabetes, she began eating large quantities of Doritos, Cheetos, and barbecue potato chips at night. “When they were on sale, I would stock up,” she says. Eating crunchy, salty snacks made her feel special and kept her emotions at bay. So she kept up the habit for over a year, until she learned of the consequences. “I never realised the damage I was doing until an annual blood test revealed kidney disease, stage 2,” says Swami. “I now know emotions control my eating habits, and I’m determined to change my habits for the better.”

EATING BEYOND HUNGER

“Compulsive overeating is the ingestion of food beyond what is needed, against a conscious wish to stop,” explains J. Michael GonzalezCampoy, M.D., Ph.D., FACE, medical director and CEO of the Minnesota Center for Obesity, Metabolism, and Endocrinology. People who compulsively overeat don’t just snack at night or eat more than their peers. Instead, they eat beyond a feeling of fullness, responding to stress and emotion rather than hunger.

HOW EMOTIONS ARE INVOLVED

Food provides a way to cope with emotional energy, says Ann GoebelFabbri, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist in Brookline, Massachusetts, and author of Prevention and Recovery from Eating Disorders in Type 1 Diabetes: Injecting Hope. And overeating can develop into a comforting habit. She recalls how a client once told her, “Food has been my best hug.”