Has the Pandemic Increased Your Emotional Eating?
Seems like every time I decide to start a healthy diet, a new strain of the virus is found!! Emotional eating is a coping mechanism used by many people to regulate negative emotions such as stress, anxiety or depression. These emotions are heightened in times of uncertainty and are very uncomfortable. Of course the foods chosen are usually highly palatable and energy dense, for example a cupcake. They are also usually fun foods that will remind you of fun times .. again for example a cupcake! Occasional indulgences are not really harmful and can actually have a positive affect especially when the emotions are acute responses to a passing event, however when the negative feelings become chronic (it feels like a 100 years!) the excess calories will start causing serious health problems. In the GCC metabolic diseases are already extremely high and if there is an increase in emotional eating then there will be health consequences.
A recent paper* by Dr Sara Al Musharaf from King Saud University has published results on the prevalence of emotional eating in young Saudi women during Covid-19 - 50% of the women in the study identified as emotional eaters. The foods chosen were those high in fat and sugar. However, the study also found that women who were "dieting" were more likely to turn to emotional eating - which proves how dieting is the wrong strategy. The study highlights that our relationship with food is complicated and going forward a lot more education in addition to public health support and research is needed.
Mandatory quarantine and isolation measures are essential for stopping the the spread of the Covid-19 virus until most people are vaccinated. However, the isolation has lead to an increase in mental health disorders and these disorders are leading to unhealthy coping mechanisms such as emotional eating which will increase the metabolic diseases. Long after we win the fight against this virus (which we will), effects on mental and physical health will remain and it is important that we handle these as soon as possible so that we don't find ourself fighting a mental health pandemic soon after - and there are no vaccines for mental health disorders.
Top Tips to help regulate emotional eating:
- Don't keep problem foods in the house. If it's not there you won't eat it.
- Make sure you are getting enough sleep, 7 to 9 hours a night. Stop social media scrolling at least 2 hours before bed.
- Limit your intake of triggering news, this includes pseudo news circulated on your family WhatsApp groups!
- Get daily exposure to sun - 10 minutes in the 2 hours after sunrise and again in the 2 hours before sunset
- Stay active, walk, run, yoga, HITT workout - whatever is possible, there are many online videos you can follow - youtube is a great place to start, and you don't need any fancy equipment.
- Do NOT feel guilty! And do not go on a restrictive dieting - science has proven that diets backfire for emotional eaters.
- If you are finding it difficult to cope, seek professional help.
* Link to Paper: Al-Musharaf, S. (2020). Prevalence and Predictors of Emotional Eating among Healthy Young Saudi Women during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Nutrients, 12(10), 2923.
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/10/2923/htm