Stress affects both body and behaviour. You have probably noticed that when you are stressed you are more prone to get sick and to have strong reactions towards food. Stress is one of the top causes of emotional eating because when you are stressed you get to experience a wide variety of emotions all at the same time. Anxiety, restlessness, sadness, anger, lack of motivation and irritability are just some of the many emotions that are associated with stress. Stress eating is just one form of the bigger issue called emotional eating. And since stress is a natural response of the body and eating is a gratifying act, it is sometimes hard to draw the line between normal eating patterns and stress eating or emotional eating behaviors. Here a few signs that say you are eating out of stress.

1. There is always food on your workspace.

There are many people who keep a chocolate bar in their drawer or a candy jar within reach. The rationale is to have access to sweets and comfort food during work hours for a quick fix. It might seem like a harmless act but it becomes a nasty habit to reach for junk food especially when the boss lashes out, when something goes wrong in the office or whenever loads of stress strikes. Then it becomes a bas stress eating response.

2.  Your idea of blowing off steam after a long day is to grab an extra delicious meal.

Who does not love a great meal right? But if you go out of your way to indulge in rich flavors at expensive restaurants rather than your usual dinner at home, you might just be reacting to the stressors from work or school. Why won’t the usual be good enough? It’s because the stress hormone is making crave for high fat and high calorie food stuff.

3. You stock up on sweets and other junk food when you have a long list of things to do.

Whether it is finals week in school or deadliest deadline of pitches in the office, a common behaviour is to stock up on junk food and drinks for all-nighters. If you are one of those who fill your fridge and pantry with sweets, salty knick knacks and so much soda when you have submissions or tests coming up, you are probably a stress eater.

4.  You use emotional adjectives to describe food.

Has it ever happened to you that you saw a chocolate cake and you thought to yourself (or said it out loud) something like “it’s so decadent and sinful”. Well, those two adjectives are associated with emotions and food is a non-living thing so if you frequently refer to food as “tempting”, “love”, “indulgent”, etc, you might be attaching too much emotions on consumable items.

5. Your daydreams are about food and not about vacations or holidays.

While others day dream about relaxing places like the beach when under stress, there are those who daydream about food instead. If you find yourself thinking too often about food, especially when you just ate, you might have associated food with comfort which means you eat more when stressed or emotional.

Tips

• Stress is a valid feeling. The way you respond to it is what makes all the difference.
• Instead of grabbing food, try talking to friends or doing some physical activity to clear your head instead.
• There are many stress management techniques out there but first you have to recognize the feeling of stress and have the willingness to address it.
• Try to look for healthier substitutes for you go-to items when stress eating so that even if you eat when stressed, the damage on your body is not going to be as much.

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