Why Do I Emotionally Eat? The Link Between Menopause and Stress Eating
Why do I emotionally eat, and Why am I sTILL doing it in Menopause?
Emotional eating is a something that many women struggle with, all their lives. It can be particularly challenging during perimenopause and menopause!
Midlife is a time of significant hormonal changes in a woman's body, which can lead to various physical and emotional symptoms. Life is also changing, and perimenopause, menopause AND menopause all come with their unique life stressors.
A common coping mechanism that women continue to turn to, during this time, is emotional eating. Understanding the connection between menopause and emotional eating is crucial for seeing this behavior differently.
It’s up to you if you decide you want to “manage” it.
Emotional eating refers to the act of eating in response to emotions, rather than true physical hunger. It is often driven by feelings of stress, sadness, loneliness, or boredom.
When faced with these emotions, some individuals find solace in food, using it as a way to comfort themselves, or distract from their feelings. If you are like me, you may not know that you’re doing it!
You might be wondering, “Does emotional eating have negative consequences on on my physical and emotional well-being?”
You might also be caught between PMS and cravings for chocolate or chips. You might be stressing about weight gain and the change in the SHAPE of your body, but still experience some HARD cravings.
When you DO experience these cravings, all you can think about is comforting, filling foods, like pasta, or potatoes, or bread. You may also be focused on sweets, like chocolate or ice-cream.
What’s up with that?
The Link Between Menopause and Emotional Eating
Menopause brings about a host of changes in a woman's body, including a decrease in estrogen levels. If you are perimenopausal, these estrogen levels may be peaking higher than ever, or falling. They become erratic.
Your progesterone is changing too. These hormones work in the brain as well as in your reproductive organs.
These hormonal changes can have a significant impact on mood and emotions. Many women experience increased levels of stress, anxiety, and irritability during menopause, which can contribute to emotional eating.
Estrogen also plays a role in your eating habits and your energy expenditure (1)
Additionally, the physical symptoms of menopause, such as hot flashes and night sweats, can disrupt sleep and this can trigger cravings too!
Moreover, menopause is often accompanied by changes in body composition and weight gain, which can also contribute to emotional eating. Many women may feel self-conscious about their changing bodies and turn to food as a means of emotional comfort.
This cycle of emotional eating can become a habit that is challenging to break without addressing the root
“Understanding the triggers of eating in everyday life is crucial for the creation of interventions to promote healthy eating and to prevent overeating.” (Appetite. 2009 Feb; 52(1): 72–82.)
(Warning: the article above uses words like diet, restraint.)
Breaking Down Emotional Eating and Stress Eating
Dr. Kent Berridge Ph.D. (here’s a nerdy link for you!) studies the chemistry of pleasure in the brain. He states that cravings can fall into a couple of categories: food “liking” and food “wanting”.
When you like something, you are getting sensory pleasure from the food you are eating. Wanting is different. When we are experiencing food “wanting”, we are experiencing motivation to eat, hungry or not.
We are made for longing, our brains crave pleasure and this is just part of us. There fore I am arguing that emotional eating is a normal, human thing.
We also just eat mindlessly, or out of habit.
Again, you’re human.
Stress and Emotional Eating During Menopause
Stress is a common trigger for emotional eating, and it is no different during menopause. The hormonal changes and physical symptoms associated with menopause can create additional stress in a woman's life. This stress can become overwhelming, leading to a desire to seek comfort in food.
Stress eating can create a vicious cycle, as overeating can lead to feelings of guilt, which in turn can cause more overeating, and more stress. Breaking this cycle requires finding alternative coping mechanisms for managing stress during menopause.
I don’t want to say “healthier” because that implies that emotional eating is ALWAYS BAD. It’s not. Sometimes comfort with food is a form of self care.
Sometimes, we can overeat. It;s not that black and white. Food, nutrition, mindful eating, it all is nuanced.
This brings us back to how we care for ourselves, and talk to ourselves in Menopause.
The Importance of Self-Care During Menopause
Self-care is crucial during menopause, especially if you think you are an emotional eater.
Taking care of your physical, emotional, and mental well-being can help reduce stress levels, which I believe is a HUGE component of your menopause symptoms. To take care of all these things, giving priority to activities that bring you joy, relaxation, and a sense of fulfillment is really important.
Stress can be a huge driver of overeating, and of hot flashes and digestive issues.
Cravings and emotional eating are intertwined
If you get a craving for chocolate, are you really avoiding an emotion? We are taught to stuff so many emotions down, that food seems to get stuffed down with them
Although cravings can have many emotional levels, there are other areas that we can look at, that trigger cravings.
I like to separate those emotional triggers, and what I call the other EBBs of cravings. Cravings EBB and flow and this is how I have clients categorize them:
We already talked about Emotions a bit.
Here is your “other” EBB and flow of cravings.
Environment, (Being around the girlfriends with wine, nachos and chocolate? Hello, sign me UP!). What happens in a room of cheer, bubbly people and a tray of canapés??? Like smoking, ENVIRONMENTS can trigger a relapse in our behaviour.
Behaviour(always eating lunch at 12, hungry or not, this can also be described as habits). We are creatures of habit. We like our morning coffee or tea. We like our holiday traditions, a certain side of the bed, a blue toothbrush, and the list goes on.
Your tummy and brain may be tuned to expect meals at a certain time. We react to the perceived discomfort of hunger, as biologically we humans need to eat or face starvation.
Always eat popcorn with a Netflix show? Bingo … behaviour.Biology, or physical state. Hunger is biologically driven, and the answer to physical hunger is food.
Asking yourself if you are truly hungry is a logical first step. Being able to recognize your physical hunger is a practice, and if you have been ignoring hunger, not eating when your body needs to, or getting so hungry you overeat, you may have lost touch with what your body is telling you.
In a Mindful Eating practice, we create a sense of AWARENESS of what triggers eating. We don’t move to an “all foods fit” attitude yet. After years of thinking of foods as good or bad, I just want you to gain awareness of HOW you eat, and WHY you eat.
Mindful eating is meant to create choice, not chains,
like a diet.
There are a LOT of choices to make around food. Some food is fun, others are more functional. Some food is affordable, other foods are not.
We can choose to eat foods based on our own needs and wisdom. Once you realize that some foods, like birthday cake, can enhance your life by connecting you, the birthday person, to others, to your own food pleasure, you can allow fun foods in.
Use your wise mind to understand that eating it for every meal may not give much physical benefit, may make you tired, and may emotionally drag you down.
Or maybe the gluten DOES make your digestion feel awful.
Only YOU know YOU.
Practicing Mindful Eating can help you decide to eat the cake, or not. You can eat a small amount and experience pure satisfaction, or eat a little more as a conscious decision.
This is where learning your own cues and triggers for yourself is so important, rather than following a food rule that tells you all of (fill in blank here) is “bad”.
Triggers can be an endless list of feelings, thoughts, events and places that set off overeating (1).
Want to choose something else BESIDES eating?
Know that as you move through your food relationship in menopause, it is always OK to eat. Sometimes you may want to do something else, and try a different coping skill on for size.
Here are some things to consider:
Mindful Eating: Practice mindful eating by paying attention to the physical sensations of hunger and fullness. Take the time to savor each bite and fully engage with the eating experience.
Identify Triggers: Become aware of the emotions or situations that trigger emotional eating. Keep a journal to track these triggers and the feelings associated with them.
Find Alternatives: Instead of turning to food when faced with emotional distress, find alternative activities that provide comfort and relaxation. Engage in hobbies, practice deep breathing exercises, or go for a walk in nature.
Create a Support Network: Reach out to friends, family, or support groups who can offer understanding and encouragement. Having a support network can make a significant difference in managing emotional eating.
Seek Professional Help: If emotional eating becomes a persistent and challenging issue, consider seeking professional help from a therapist or counselor. They can provide guidance and support in overcoming this behavior.
If you have been in a restriction mentality for years, and tell yourself that you can’t have certain things, because of what they will “do” to you, you may be just increasing your desire to eat even more. By letting go of your personal food rules, bit by bit, you may find that the cravings can decrease.
Try the principles of Mindful Eating, and savour a little more of life, and chocolate:) Looking for a Conscious Eating and Living Community?
We talk about ALL of the body, including gut health, mouth health, conscious eating and more? Come on in!
Be well, and please, be HAPPY😊
Tanya
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6066788/
*This is in no way meant to take place of mental health advice, licensed medical care or diagnosis. I am not a mental health practitioner, I am a coach, sharing my own experience and formal knowledge. If you feel you have an eating disorder, please, find a mental health expert, to talk to and help you through.