Emotional Eating

Did you know that emotional eating is a learned response?  It goes against what our bodies actually want to do when we "eat our stress."  Naturally speaking, when we are under stress, the body goes into fight or flight mode.  A full stomach is not conducive to either of these actions!

(Hormonally speaking, stress sets off a chain of events that breaks down and mobilizes energy-yielding nutrients.  This increases the amount of glucose and fats in the blood so that the body cells can easily produce energy for the fight or flight.  Now, instead of fight or flight, we sit on the couch, so those nutrients do not get used, and then they end up back as belly fat.)

So, if stress eating is a learned response, where do we learn it?  Well, I hate to place all of the blame on parents... but we tend to learn it from our families.

The next time a little one that you know needs cheering up, opt for something other than food!  Spontaneous dance party, anyone?