Ask Keri: How can I help my clients stop binge eating when they’re stressed?
Keri Says: Life is stressful and it seems like over the past year, life has really overachieved at this. Sigh. An endless barrage of unpleasant news stories, uncertainty about the economy, and the normal day-to-day stressors we all come up against and you have a recipe for an uptick in stress, anxiety and the emotional eating fallout that comes with.
Many people have been experiencing “binge eating” to a level that is far from their norm. Stress increases appetite and cravings for sugary, high-fat foods that provide a quick rush of stress-relieving serotonin and dopamine. What does this do? It makes us want more and more of these types of food. Food addiction is also a real thing.
It’s also important to note that “binge eating” is often used by clients in this context: “I binged on cookies over the weekend while watching football with friends.” They may have emotionally overeaten but they may or may not have an actual binge eating disorder (BED). Clinically, binge eating refers to consuming a large amount of food in a short period while feeling a loss of control, often accompanied by guilt or distress. BED is a diagnosable condition included in the DSM-5 and requires meeting specific criteria. It is best to use the terms such as overeat, or emotionally overeat to avoid confusion unless a person truly has BED.
Here’s how you can help your clients stop this cycle right in its tracks.
Identify Triggers
First, you need to help your client identify triggers leading to emotional eating. Some people don’t realize that emotions are influencing certain eating patterns. Ask your clients (or yourself) if their having cravings after watching the news? Do they down a bag of chips after every power struggle with their child about doing homework? Are they scrolling through a full email inbox as they eat lunch? Identifying the situations/emotions that trigger eating is the first step to controlling it.
RELATED: Nutritious Life Emotional Eating Course
Control Triggers
Once you’ve identified triggers, then it’s time to develop controls for these triggers. In other words, a plan of action to combat them. This is going to look different for every person. I like to think of controls in two ways: food controls and non-food controls. Food controls are for those times that a person is truly hungry and/or it’s meal time. Non-food controls are for when there is no true hunger. Having a control (aka plan) on its own often helps a person to feel more calm and thus, less likely to emotionally eat.
A food control is something that will satisfy a craving without causing a person to “eat around” a craving. For example, if someone is craving something sweet, a sliced apple paired with a tablespoon of peanut butter and a drizzle of honey may do the trick. It’s substantial enough and sweet enough to provide satisfaction. In the mood to crunch? Celery sticks won’t cut it if there is true hunger involved, but a tortilla, cut into quarters and baked with a sprinkle of sea salt and served with a tablespoon of guacamole may. Having a go-to control food for when a person is feeling triggered (but also truly hungry) is key.
A few examples of non-food controls are calling a friend (I know, I know, you’ve heard it before, but it works!), doing a face mask, dropping and doing ten push ups (it just resets your mindset) or even cleaning a drawer can all stop the urge to emotionally eat.
What is key here is to find an activity that will actually relieve stress, delay and distract eating and change a person’s frame of mind.
Whether it’s a stressful election, the holiday season or just the daily hustle, stress and other triggers of emotional eating are unavoidable. But, having controls can dramatically reduce unwanted outcomes from acting on those triggers. Helping clients find food and non-food related ways to cope will not only support their efforts to maintain healthy eating habits, but will also improve their overall health and wellness. It’s a win-win, if you ask me.
(Featured photo: Shutterstock)

About Nutritious Life Editors
The Nutritious Life Editors are a team of healthy lifestyle enthusiasts who not only subscribe to — and live! — the 8 Pillars of a Nutritious Life, but also have access to some of the savviest thought leaders in the health and wellness space — including our founder and resident dietitian, Keri Glassman. From the hottest trends in wellness to the latest medical science, we stay on top of it all in order to deliver the info YOU need to live your most nutritious life.
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