Joey’s Road - Stress and Eating

Tools

By KULR Staff

Story Published: Jan 21, 2010 at 7:51 PM MST

Story Updated: Jan 21, 2010 at 7:51 PM MST

BILLINGS - Eating unhappy can mean eating unhealthy. Clinical social worker Cheryl Ikeda has some tips for the food-stress connection.

“If we experience some sort of uncomfortable emotion, it might be stress, it might be tension, it might be anger, it might be disappointment, it might be sadness, any of those uncomfortable emotions that, for some people, they are pattern of response in an attempt to ease that, where we reach for food. We know that food can certainly be a soother, and often times, it’s foods that have a higher calorie or high fat content that taste good to us,” Ikeda says.

She has a few simple steps that can help a stressed person slow down and examine the situation.

“The first step would be, what’s going on with me? What kind of circumstances are occurring, and what’s my emotional reaction to those?” Ikeda says.

“One question just to ask, if you find yourself just reaching for food, would be, am I physically hungry? And it may be that, truthfully, you are, in which case, you might want to look at developing a little bag of goodies that are really healthier for you. If the answer is no, I’m frustrated, I’m bored, I’m angry, then it would be developing a whole array of other resources,” Ikeda says, pointing out that alternative activities like taking a walk, stretching, breathing exercises, keeping busy, social interaction, and other active choices can be effective tools for getting the mind off of food.

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