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Emotional Eating Cues

One of the biggest contributing factors to people who are overweight and obese is the factor of emotional eating. We have been raised in a society where food is used in a large number of ways. Food is present when there is a celebration. Sweet snacks are there to provide you comfort and satisfaction when you are sad and depressed. People unite and converse during a night out in a restaurant. We mindlessly eat while watching television, not even because we are hungry but simply for the fact that it's there and we like it.

It only stands to reason that when we get emotional we eat. What you need to do is start to identify the cues that cause emotional eating and then find more constructive ways to deal with the emotions that are triggering it. Eating should be a response to your body needing nourishment not because you need food to make you emotionally happy. It is the emotional eating that also leads to binge eating and in many cases obesity.

Some of the emotional cues are as follows:

1. Anger - Perhaps you face a situation with another person that sends you into a rage. Instead of confronting the person about the situation you ignore it but instead you head to the one thing you know you have control over. Food. It is easier to supress your anger in a bag of potato chips then deal with the cause of it.
2. Stress/Anxiety - When you are stressed and anxious food can be, and frequently is, used as a distraction. Stress and anxiety can actually cause cravings and obsessive overeating. In instances where there is intense prolonged anxiety and stress a doctor should be consulted.
3. Boredom - Boredom is what causes many people to mindlessly devour an entire large bag of potato chips. It also accounts for the constant television binges that many people don't even realize they are doing until they have consumed hundreds or even thousands of calories.
4. Loneliness/Sadness - A good portion of people have experienced the quart of ice cream binge they so on after a bad breakup. Those high calorie sweet snacks seem like the perfect solution to someone that is upset and just needs something to take the pain away.
5. Depression - You come to a point where you really lose hope and caring for much of anything and so you ignore the voice that tells you to stop overeating because eating is the one thing that brings you happiness.

Regardless of which category you fall under overeating while brings a tiny but of happiness also brings a large amount of pain and distress in the long run. There are many constructive ways to deal with these emotions that can also bring job and promote good health. Exercise for instance has been proven to improve self-esteem, relieve depression and provides an excellent outlet to unleash anger and pent up negative feelings. Next time you feel yourself slipping into one of the five categories instead of grabbing a bag of potato chips, go for a walk in the park, or perhaps pound out your aggression on a heavy bag in the gym. You'll be guaranteed to feel better in the short and long term if you do.

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