Emotional eating: How food connects a human’s body and mind

Hungry kya? Or do you eat even when you are not hungry? This is what Deepak Chopra calls ‘a hunger-sized hole in the stomach’, and what Jenna Hollenstein terms as ‘emotional eating‘. When you’re feeling sad, happy, excited, celebratory, depressed, stressed, angry – you reach for food. Similar to smokers reaching for a cigarette and non-teetotallers reaching for a drink. Doing so, do the problems go away or does the period of excitement and happiness get extended? No. Any problem that inspired you to overeat only gets worse and more complicated.

I know a couple who follow strict, frugal diets, but all their conversations are peppered with food – what they or their friends ate, recipes, and so on. Food is something that is so integral to our lives that we simply cannot keep it away from our conscious and subconscious minds.

If you soothe yourself with food, your body and mind are trying to tell you something, points out Hollenstein. ‘We seek comfort and distraction in crunchiness, chewiness, or creaminess. Yet all too quickly remorse sets in, and we’re left reeling – no closer to soothing the hurt.’

Most spiritual leaders say that we need to be careful of what we eat, how and by whom it is prepared. Because food affects our consciousness and energy matrix. Food is not to be eaten dismissively, obsessively or perfunctorily. Thich Nhat Hahn advised us all to eat mindfully – eating should nourish both body and mind. ‘Every minute of your meal should be happy. Not many people have the opportunity to sit down and enjoy a meal, eating mindfully.’