When we are in a bad mood, or in a low mood, we often want to eat. In this case, gratification seems to have some consolation for our low spirits.
Maybe some friends would like to eat ice cream, cake and other desserts when they are in a bad mood. Some people want to experience the pleasure of eating spicy hot food or all spicy food when they are depressed and melancholy. No matter what kind of you are, being in a bad mood is like eating. I believe that more than half of your friends have been shot.
So why are you in a bad mood and overeat?
In fact, if you are in a bad mood and want to eat, it belongs to 'emotional eating'. Often when we feel nervous or stressed, eating snacks is the catharsis of these negative emotions.
Does emotional eating help us to relieve our emotions?
Stress increases cortisol levels, which in turn stimulates cravings for snacks. The study found that the pleasure of eating snacks lasts only one minute, and it takes much longer to lose weight when the heat is transferred to the waist and buttocks.
According to a Finnish study, work stress can lead to emotional eating, resulting in obesity and health hazards. Researchers from the Finnish Institute of occupational health and the University of Oulu followed 230 women for a year, all working in the southern Finnish city of ESPO. The results show that women who feel pressure and physical and mental fatigue at work are more likely to eat emotionally, thus forming bad eating habits, leading to obesity and endangering health.
Food, or food, is a way to relieve the mental and psychological consequences of food, 75% of overeating is caused by emotion. Emotional eating can not solve the problems and emotions in people's real life, but will aggravate the emotional instability.
How to avoid emotional eating?
1. Distinguish between physical and psychological hunger
Before overeating, ask yourself whether you are physically or psychologically hungry. Physical hunger is gradually formed, often with stomachache or "guru" sound, empty stomach, headache, fatigue, physical exhaustion and other manifestations; and psychological hunger is sudden.
2. Take your mind off eating for a while
When you feel like eating, try to distract yourself for 10 minutes. Make a list of activities that will keep your hands busy and interest you, and stick it on the refrigerator door. Research has found that knitting activities such as knitting sweaters and cross stitch can divert people's attention from eating. In addition, it includes reading, painting, playing chess, fitness, makeup or manicure, walking or cycling, and calling relatives and friends in a room outside the kitchen.
3. Drink water often
In fact, many people confuse thirst with hunger. In fact, these are two different views. Therefore, we should exclude dehydration before overeating. You can put a cup of water around you and drink a few sips from time to time, and you will feel full. Drinking black tea also helps. A foreign study has shown that drinking black tea can reduce the level of cortisol (a hormone that causes stress), thereby reducing food craving.
4. Prepare low sugar food
Instant oatmeal, instant tomato soup, whole wheat biscuits, baked sweet potato and other foods have relatively low energy and carbohydrate content, but they can provide psychological satisfaction similar to bread and biscuits, and can meet the urgent need for emotional diet.
5. Think about unhealthy food ingredients
Biscuits contain pigment and flavor. Salted ham sausage contains nitrite, and barbecue contains carcinogenic substance &hellip. Do you have any appetite for these ingredients? Fresh, low sugar and vegetables are the best snacks.
6. Calm down
Generally, the best way to calm down is to learn to meditate, which is the most effective way.
Try relaxation training, diary writing, meditation, deep breathing, yoga, etc. If these methods are not effective, we should pay attention to whether there are depression, anxiety and other problems, and we need to seek the help of a psychologist.