Have you ever noticed that when you are in a bad mood you reach for the ‘junk food’? You know the kind, greasy, over-processed, boxed up good stuff that lines the shelves of the supermarket. Many people have their go to feel good food such as chocolate or a glass of wine. What you may not know is that there is an actual scientific reason for why you reach for the bad foods when in a bad mood and reach for the good food when in a good mood.
Many studies have been done in regards to ‘eating your feelings’. A study done by Meryl Gardner, a marketing professor at the University of Delaware, shows that there is a consistent positive correlation between feeling bad and eating unhealthy (Beck, 2014). What is so interesting about this is that though people tend to reach for unhealthy food when in a negative mood, the type of food ranged from cookies to candy and anything in between.
So does our mood affect what we eat or does what we eat affect our mood? Depending on the study it can be both ways. Julie Beck mentions that no matter the mood, sweets and sugary foods make us feel better (Beck, 2014). Looking at this, you would say that eating unhealthy food causes a good mood. But she also mentions that this happiness is not genuine and very short lived. You may feel guilt for eating more junk food than planned or you could just completely crash from the sugar high, both leaving you unhappy. But a study done in 2010 showed that people in a bad mood are more likely to reach for chocolate over grapes showing that our mood will very well inhibit our eating patterns. So why is that?
Research has shown that the brain releases b-endorphins (a natural pleasure chemical) when we eat our favorite foods. Could this be the reason we reach for unhealthy foods to please our negative mood? Researchers say, possibly! Lazarus and Folkman created a model called the “Transactional Model of Stress” which can be directly implemented here (Lafreniere & Cramer, 2012). First you would need a stressor which can range from some slight annoyance on a day to day basis (traffic, spilled coffee, crying baby) or a large life changing event (death, divorce, birth). A stressor will vary from person to person. Second is the appraisal which is the response to the stressor. This can be broken down into two sub-categories; threats (potentially harmful) and challenges (an obstacle to overcome). In this specific case, bad mood causing us to eat bad food, the stressor of your choice would be met with the challenges appraisal.
Now that we have decided on our stressor and our type of appraiser we will need to define our coping style. Coping, as told by Lafreniere and Cramer (2012), is the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors brought on by stressors. There are thousands of coping mechanisms but in regards to the transactional model of stress you will see problem focused (dealing with the problem directly) or emotion focused (regulating emotions to minimize distress). Looking back on our stressor, accompanied by being a challenge to overcome, we will come to decide that we will face our stressor head on with emotion focused coping. We will try to minimize our stress by eating food to make us feel better. The final step is health outcomes. Lafreniere and Cramer (2012) said, “People who experience a great deal of stress are those who show poor coping mechanisms”.
We have now seen that our idea of ‘emotional eating’ has some backing to it though we do not know exactly what causes what. We can chalk it up to the age old question; what came first, the chicken or the egg? Some studies suggest mood dictates our eating habits while other suggest eating habits dictate our mood. All we know for sure is that eating is an important part of human nature and is not taken lightly. Lazarus and Folkman showed us that there is a track we take as human beings to distinguish our stressors and decide how to handle them (though we do not notice this directly). So next time you reach for those cookies on a sad day remember to ask yourself, am I eating this because I am sad and can I make a better choice?
References
Beck, J. (2014, March 6). Our Moods, Our Foods. Retrieved from The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/our-moods-our-foods/284238/
Lafreniere, K. D., & Cramer, K. M. (2012). Applying Social Psychology to Health. In F. W. Schneider, J. A. Gruman, & L. M. Coutts, Applied Social Psychology (pp. 165-190). Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Something that I think is really interesting is the online shopping boom. Over the Christmas holiday as I was doing my shopping, I wondered about all the people who shop somewhat, or even entirely, online. I am someone who enjoys the physical act of shopping, but to be honest, the best part about it is the instant gratification of leaving the store with the item I want in my hands. When I hand over my hard-earned money, I want my product now, not later! At first I thought maybe it was the actual items that were being purchased– gifts for others– that makes online shopping easier. After all, you’re not going to be getting the gratification of seeing them open those gifts until December 25th, so does it matter when the gift arrives? I suppose not. However, online shopping has increased over the past couple of years or so, and it is not limited to holiday purchases. I rarely shop online, and when I do it’s for something that I don’t need RIGHT NOW so I don’t care to wait for the delivery. Apparently, though, companies are working to grow their online boutiques and provide that instant gratification we love at the same time by offering lightening fast delivery, sometimes within mere hours of ordering, as the New York Times reports (Stout, 2013). In fact, the future of shopping might be heading in the direction of ordering products before you know you need them. For instance, when your refrigerator realizes you are low on milk, it sends an order to your favorite retailer and milk is delivered as your old gallon is being thrown away (Stout, 2013).
I’m not sure how I feel about that kind of automation, but I can say I enjoy having my occasional grocery order ready for pick-up on my way home from work.
References
Stout, H. (2013, Oct 8). For shoppers, next level of instant gratification. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/08/technology/for-shoppers-next-level-of-instant-gratification.html
Hello!
I really enjoyed reading your blog post! The title definitely captures your attention. I am very new to this whole blogging thing and I feel you did an excellent job coming up with a cohesive and informative, yet interesting, post. I look forward to reading more blogs from you!
With that being said. Our eating habits are always a popular topic. I know that lately, because of my age and having a baby just a year ago, I am thinking about my eating habits quite a bit. As a matter of fact! As I was sitting here reading this blog I was contemplating if I wanted to dip into my daughter’s bag of Valentines candy or if I should just eat a bowl of soup instead! I decided on neither since it is after 9pm.
Reading your blog made me think about what I was feeling and why I was wanting something to eat. I can say that I am not in a bad mood, depressed or stressed per say…I think I am just bored lol! I think being bored is another culprit when it comes to having bad eating habits. I know other people who eat when they’re bored. This can also lead to obesity if you are always eating when idle.
I will think a little harder about why I am wanting to eat and what choices I should make when I do!
Hello!
I really enjoyed reading your blog post! The title definitely captures your attention. I am very new to this whole blogging thing and I feel you did an excellent job coming up with a cohesive and informative, yet interesting, post. I look forward to reading more blogs from you!
With that being said. Our eating habits are always a popular topic. I know that lately, because of my age and having a baby just a year ago, I am thinking about my eating habits quite a bit. As a matter of fact! As I was sitting here reading this blog I was contemplating if I wanted to dip into my daughter’s bag of Valentines candy or if I should just eat a bowl of soup instead! I decided on neither since it is after 9pm.
Reading your blog made me think about what I was feeling and why I was wanting something to eat. I can say that I am not in a bad mood, depressed or stressed per say…I think I am just bored lol! I think being bored is another culprit when it comes to having bad eating habits. I know other people who eat when they’re bored. This can also lead to obesity if you are always eating when idle.
Again, thank you for your informative and interesting post! I will think a little harder about why I am wanting to eat and what choices I should make when I do!
Hello!
I really enjoyed reading your blog post! The title definitely captures your attention. I am very new to this whole blogging thing and I feel you did an excellent job coming up with a cohesive and informative, yet interesting, post. I look forward to reading more blogs from you!
With that being said. Our eating habits are always a popular topic. I know that lately, because of my age and having a baby just a year ago, I am thinking about my eating habits quite a bit. As a matter of fact! As I was sitting here reading this blog I was contemplating if I wanted to dip into my daughter’s bag of Valentines candy or if I should just eat a bowl of soup instead! I decided on neither since it is after 9pm.
Reading your blog made me think about what I was feeling and why I was wanting something to eat. I can say that I am not in a bad mood, depressed or stressed per say…I think I am just bored lol! I think being bored is another culprit when it comes to having bad eating habits. I know other people who eat when they’re bored. This can also lead to obesity if you are always eating when idle.
Again, thank you for your informative and interesting post!
Hi!
I enjoyed reading your blog post. I found it very entertaining as you incorporated many creative ideas. Your title definitely caught my attention and made me want to read your post to begin with. In addition, you implemented good use of examples related to emotional eating. Lastly, you did a great job of relating your topic to real-life events that could pertain to almost everyone’s personal life. Thank you for a creative, fun, and knowledgeable read about stress, diet, and coping factors.
Indulging ourselves in comfort foods is a coping mechanism that everyone uses at some point in their life, whether they admit to it or not. Relatively, emotional eating is a strange phenomenon. For instance, if someone is feeling upset about a certain stressor in their life, then their mood may affect their dietary patterns. Although, sometimes when I am upset I either indulge myself in my favorite [unhealthy] foods, or I do not eat much at all. It is interesting that our moods do not just influence the types of foods that we eat, but they also have an effect on the amount of food we eat. Stressor’s impact on dietary patterns typically relates to a wide range of how much that we are capable of eating at that time (either eating close to none, or eating everything in site).
Do you think that mood would affect what we eat if we typically already eat unhealthier foods on a regular basis? While someone who eats healthy foods on a regular basis may not be as vulnerable to have cravings for unhealthier food choices regardless if they are stressed or not. In the second situation, the food they eat affects their mood (rather than the other way around). Also, are there certain foods that put us in a really good or really bad mood? I’m curious if there are any major mood-enhancing (or mood-worsening) foods that you should either eat or avoid.
Furthermore, I enjoyed your presentation about the Transaction Model of Stress (1984) in relation to emotional eating. The model provided an organized mental image for comparing coping mechanisms for various stressors and challenges. Additionally, someone can experience feeling stressed, but not be able to identify the source of their stress or how to manage their negative feeling by incorporating positive coping mechanisms to enhance one’s well-being (Schneider et al., 2012, pp. 183). Discovering one of the many coping mechanisms that personally works for you can open up many different doors, and eliminate a whole lot of stress if applied properly.
Chapter 8 mentions that high levels of stress can have a ‘suppressive effect on the immune system.’ Feeling stressed is not just an uncomfortable feeling to have, but it can also aid in the development of serious illnesses including: infectious diseases, asthma, diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis (Schneider et al., 2012, pp. 184). Furthermore, it is important to keep in mind that we all report stress as our own unique experience and appraise life events differently. Therefore, it is important to remember that a coping mechanism that worked for you may not be ideal for someone else if you are trying to lend someone emotional support (Schneider et al., 2012, pp. 187).
Discovering healthy coping mechanisms are important to ensure proper wellness. Grabbing for the junk food drawer may be an easy coping mechanism to fall back on. Although, it is beneficial to your emotional and physical well-being to research healthy coaching exercises that will make you feel good inside and out; as well as benefit you in the short-run and long-run. For example, learning how to do attribution retraining interventions is an optimistic way to improve your personal well-being. This coping method has shown to improve various areas of functioning, such as ‘preventing depression, increasing academic performance, improved relationships, heightened levels of happiness, reduced anger, higher motivation, and amplified goal-setting (Schneider et al., 2012, pp. 389).’ Attribution retraining involves, “disputing pessimistic causal (maladaptive) attributions, and replacing them with optimistic (adaptive) attributions (Schneider et al., 2012, pp.389).” Furthermore, retraining focuses on changing any former connections that you have made between positive and negative life events that occurred as a result of underlying reasons or occurrences.
Emotional eating is basically emotional learning. In other words, it means our body has learned to cope by eating because that is something we know is comforting and that we are familiar with. Conclusively, eating comfort foods may temporarily help minimize stress, but it does not propose the healthiest long-run effects on our physical and mental well-being. It is critical to explore many positive coaching exercises which you can personally appraise as a beneficial approach to promote good health. Essentially, finding the right coping mechanism may take time, but your body and mind will thank you in the long run. In conclusion, put down the cookie and distract yourself with running a study of trial-and-errors of positive coping mechanisms (if none of them help, then you can have one cookie).
Kendall Eimers
References:
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications
Hello,
Eating habits and mood is indeed an interesting topic, and one that is definitely being discussed more and more recently. I like how you tied in the transactional model of stress (1984) with emotional eating, as it does definitely fit the model quite well (Schneider et al., 2012).
What came to my mind when reading your post is how sometimes people develop extreme coping mechanisms like eating disorders when faced with the stressor of their eating habits. Some eating disorders are binge eating, bulimia and anorexia. The exact cause of developing an eating disorder is not yet known, but it has been linked with low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and trouble coping with emotions (WebMD). Chapter 8 discusses that individuals who undergo large amounts of stress are also those who exhibit poor coping responses, and therefore show higher rates of illness (Schneider et al., 2012). It goes without say that developing an eating disorder is linked with the poor coping responses that the authors are referring to. If people know somebody who suffers from an eating disorder, it is very important to provide them with not only emotional support, but also informational support (Schneider et al., 2012). Of course being there for someone emotionally will help that individual feel safe and loved, but it would be more beneficial to the suffering individual to receive suggestions on how to face his/her issue. One piece of advice could be to introduce the theory of planned behavior, and then work out a plan to achieve the desired behavior – which in this case would be to develop and maintain healthier eating habits. The first step is to make sure that the person’s attitude towards the behavior are positive, meaning that the person knows that fixing their eating disorder will eventually allow him/her to be healthier (Schneider et al., 2012). The person’s decision and process of developing healthier eating will likely be influenced by subjective norms about the behavior – which would be what he/she believes how other people see the behavior, and wanting to comply with norms. In this stage, knowing that the person has a good, strong support system will be a motivational component for him/her (Schneider et al., 2012). Finally, and the hardest step in my opinion, is how much the person believes they have control over the behavior – or their perceived behavior control (Schneider et al., 2012). I am by no means insinuating that overcoming an eating disorder is an easy feat – I know how difficult and scary it can be for individuals going through it. But, having the intention to alter the behavior is already a major step in the right direction, and that’s where the theory of planned behavior can come in handy (Schneider et al., 2012).
Hilda
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications
http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/eating-disorders/signs-of-eating-disorders#1