One of the most essential physiological needs of the human being is to eat or feed, in this way we generate the energy necessary for our body to perform all the activities inherent to its development and functioning, now, feeling physiologically hungry is normal, and when eating, this need disappears.
In this opportunity we will relate in a general way with the well-known phenomenon of emotional hunger, without realizing it, if we do not control it, it will lead us to a progressive deterioration of our physical and mental health, because we do not satisfy the physiological need to feed ourselves, and we eat in relation to our emotions.
There are people that stress generates a great appetite, they eat, eat and eat, but they say they are not full or are not completely satiated, bringing as a consequence possible signs of obesity, and with it, physical-psychological problems, when a person feels obese, often falls into depression, as we can see a vicious circle, depression-obesity or obesity-depression is generated.
Many people let go the domain of certain emotions such as sadness, loneliness, fear, among others, and try to get their control by taking refuge through food consumption, I think that food consumption would not be so much, the problem is generated when the person does not feel satiated or full.
The frequency with which food consumption is generated, as well as the quantity, are aspects that should be of concern to those people who experience this, since they are on the way to developing an emotional hunger, and if not controlled, the consequences can be extremely detrimental to their general health.
Hunger and emotions, a conscious or unconscious relationship of human beings
The human being has to feed in some way to live, for some, eating is the best feeling of satisfaction in their lives, for others, a mere physiological need, whatever their position, we must feed ourselves if we want to survive, how to do it? It is up to each person to decide.
Undoubtedly, our palate is attracted more to some foods than others, maybe this is related to the way our parents raise us, or by the environment where we are, or by the various advertising messages that reach our brain, the truth is my dear friends that consciously or unconsciously from very young children we relate food with our emotions.
What parent does not offer his child to take him out to eat in the street, or give him any candy if he gets good grades, or shows good behavior at school or home, that is, a reward as a reward for the above, this makes many people, vallan relating that a sadness, some resentment, separation, among other emotions, can satiate them or fight them with that food they like.
Many people do it proportionally, that is, the sadder they are, the more they eat, of course, this will depend on the experience of each person, but, from this point of view, when we are in some of our emotional extremes (sad or happy), there are certain foods that manage to awaken pleasant reactions in our brain, and we want to eat them desperately, for example chocolate.
Emotional hunger is not a real feeling of being hungry physiologically speaking, but rather that unconscious desire that leads us to want to fill a certain emptiness, but not precisely in our stomach, as it is of emotional origin, I can say that we have all gone through this, where we feel that we are consciously or unconsciously overflowing an emotion, and we try to compensate by eating.
It is possible to satisfy emotional hunger
According to studies linked to psychological experiences of people analyzed with this type of phenomenon, it is recommended as a first step the identification of the emotion that leads them to not satiate when eating, for example, situations of sadness, stress, worry, happiness, among many others, the important thing is to put the name to what we are feeling, and then see how it invades us, and thus know how to deal with it in the best way.
Food is one of our actions that we should pay more attention to, our physical-mental health depends on it, usually, we never stop to think about the types of food we eat, and be aware of the temptation of emotional hunger, if we want to keep our body balanced, it is necessary to be aware of the effects that emotions generate in our mind, as is the case of emotional hunger.
Conclusion
When physiological hunger knocks on the door of our stomach, it increases if we do not feed, and once we do, we stop feeling hungry, that is, we are satiated, this type of hunger can be covered with any type of food or eaten, however, it is necessary to eat as healthily as possible.
For example, it reaches our mind before it reaches our stomach, and above all we feel the desire to eat a specific food, especially an unhealthy one, although this would not be so much the detail, but rather, that even though we can eat this food, we are not able to satiate these desires, the important thing will always be in the self-awareness that we constantly make about our emotions.
Educating ourselves in all senses gives us the advantage of being ahead of any phenomenon that threatens our physical-mental health, and that is the purpose of this article, to awaken the interest in knowing how each of the emotions act in our mind, since they will be reflected in our behavior, such as feeling emotional hunger.
Until another opportunity my dear friends.
Bibliographic references consulted and recommended
[1] What is Emocional eating?. Link.
[2] MEET YOUR HAPPY CHEMICALS. Link.
[3] Emotional Eating & How to Stop It. Link.