Did you know that over 90% of Australian women, who struggle with their weight, comfort eat?
But the old mantra of “eat less, exercise more” is no longer cutting it. Some professionals in the health industry are recognising that there is so much more behind emotional eating than that simplistic way of thinking.
There can often be deep-seated psychological issues behind emotional eating that can be triggered in times of stress. Continual emotional eating can be extremely harmful to your health down the road as you can develop obesity, which can lead to other health issues such as high blood pressure and diabetes.
Let’s break it down a bit more and analyze what other health problems can come up as a result of long-term emotional eating.
- Rapid weight gain
It’s no secret that binge-eating and emotional eating can cause rapid weight gain as the most common factor.
Additionally, if you’re emotionally eating because of stress, that stress on top of your excessive eating can mess with your metabolism, making it harder to lose weight (and easier to gain it.)
- Insulin Sensitivity and Diabetes
Insulin sensitivity and diabetes are two things that can occur long-term when emotionally eating. Insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome are both directly linked to overeating and emotional-eating.
Because insulin helps control the amount of sugar in the blood, it causes a build-up of glucose, which can then lead to type 2 diabetes. A healthier diet and weight loss and exercise can help reverse insulin resistance.
- Hypertension and Cardiovascular Disease
Hypertension is also known as high blood pressure, which can often be reversed with a healthy diet and exercise. In more moderate to severe cases, medication may need to be involved, but I always recommend working on diet and lifestyle changes firstly.
Cardiovascular disease is a class of diseases directly related to the heart that can cause heart failure or a heart attack. These two things are both directly correlated in that they both affect the heart.
- Stress
Stress can activate the hormone cortisol, causing it to rise during times of high tension. Increased levels of the hormone can cause higher insulin levels and your blood sugar to drop, meaning you’re more likely to crave something unhealthy and emotionally eat trigger foods.
Extra abdominal fat long-term is unhealthy for anyone with any body type, so it’s recommended to treat your stress in healthy ways such as meditation instead of using emotional eating to cope with the stresses of life.
The Main Takeaway
Now that you know all the ways emotional eating can be harmful to you down the road, you can take action right now to stop emotional eating and choose much healthier, balanced options.
The best ways to offset things such as hypertension, diabetes, etc. are to identify your trigger feelings and trigger foods, learn ways to manage urges, surround yourself with healthy foods and develop a mindset that sets you up for success!
If you have struggled with this for a long time, are tired of going it alone and are ready to step up for yourself to create change, I would love to personally invite you to join my FB group “Find Freedom from the Scales with Mind Body Eating”.
This group is free, however there is one pre-requisite to joining… you must be willing to be open, honest and interactive in the group – this will be the key to your success… sharing with other women just like you, your journey – as they too share theirs with you!
The most important message is “Take Action” – either by doing your own research, joining the FB group or reaching out to me at natalie@leapintohealth.com.au to find out how you could work 1 on 1 with me. I would love to support you on your path to creating energy, clarity and confidence in your life!
Much Love,
Nat xx
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