According to WHO's definition, health; Rather than not having a disability or disease, it means that the person is in a good state physiologically, psychologically and socially. One of our basic needs in order to live a healthy life is to eat regularly and adequately. In addition to significantly affecting our development, adequate daily food intake enables us to be more active and productive during the day. Unhealthy, excessive or insufficient food intake causes people to have an unbalanced diet and deteriorate their health.
Emotional eating behavior can be defined as eating in response to the negative emotions people experience. Usually anger, sadness, anxiety, fear, loneliness, etc. It occurs as a result of feeling emotions. When individuals cannot cope with the negative emotions experienced, they turn to eating behavior and thus try to forget the negativities.
The hunger state of people with normal hunger and emotional eating behavior is different from each other. A normally hungry person can suppress his hunger with foods that are lower in energy and calories, such as fruits. People who experience emotional hunger prefer ready-made foods and fast food-style foods that are higher in energy and calories. This hunger begins unexpectedly and generally every available food is consumed during hunger.
Emotional hunger was first mentioned together with bulimia disease. Although it was initially seen as supporting the excessive food intake of people suffering from bulimia, research on the subject shows that emotional eating is in a relationship with binge eating disorder. Negative emotional states increase binge eating behavior. Stress, which increases with negative emotions, makes it difficult for individuals to control themselves and they cannot control their eating behavior. Starting to use eating as a defense mechanism will lead people to eat even when they are not hungry, causing both psychological and physiological harm in the future.
Emotional eating behavior is a gene. It is especially seen in people with obesity, individuals who are on a diet despite being at an ideal weight, and individuals with eating disorders. Emotional eating can be seen not only in people who are overweight, but also in people with ideal weight. Especially individuals in adolescence and childhood and people with obesity constitute the risk group of emotional eating.
Emotional eating can be a learned behavior or it can result from problems in our daily relationships or our past emotional experiences.
Emotional hunger. People with this problem need to get support from professionals working in the field of health and psychologists in order to change these behaviors. Nutrition education should be provided to people at regular intervals throughout the treatment period. These trainings play an active role in putting what will be explained into behavior.
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