Why do you eat more under stressful conditions?

Author- Dr Aakash Bansal

Obesity is one of the major health issues worldwide and has become a leading cause of death globally in both young adults and old age individuals. Health consequences of obesity range from premature death to major health disorders such as cardiovascular disorders, __ hypertension, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes , etc that can cause a significant reduction in the quality of an individual’s life.

There are multiple reasons for the onset of obesity in an individual such as excess calorie intake, less physical activity, underlying health disorder but most importantly it depends upon the individual’s food choices that are majorly influenced by daily stress exposure of an individual. Multiple studies have proven this thing that prolonged stress leads to unhealthy food intake that in turn leads to weight gain and other health issues.

Stress eating is a measure that helps to relieve stress from the body and provide a feel-good factor and it helps to fill emotional needs rather than the stomach. But unfortunately, it doesn’t help to fix stress but makes the situation worse by initiating a feeling of guilt because of overeating.

Difference between Stress Hunger Vs Physical Hunger

In both cases, intake of food happens but to break the cycle of stress eating, understanding the difference between the two is necessary that will help to differentiate the difference and appropriate actions can be planned accordingly.

Stress Hunger	Physical Hunger
Comes suddenly	Comes on gradually
It needs to be satisfied instantly	It can wait
Needs specific comfort food, especially palatable items high in fat and carbs	Open to lots of options
It is not satisfied even with a full stomach	It stops when the stomach is full
Triggers feelings of guilt, powerlessness, and shame	Doesn’t trigger any bad feeling post-consumption of food

Reasons for increased hunger during stress

Stress-induced food intake involves both hormonal and metabolic pathways through the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which leads to the release of glucocorticoids (stress hormones) during a stressful environment which stimulates several events like increased insulin resistance and disturbed hunger hormones (increased ghrelin and decreased leptin hormones). These pathways lead to a reduction in lipolysis, increase hunger (even when stomach Is full), and also affect sex steroids thus promoting the accumulation of fat in the body.

Also, prolonged stress hormones affect psychologically that promote reward feeling towards the palatable food items high in sugar and fats.

Management

While stress eating has no confirmed management plan that can be implemented to get the results but some measures are advised to manage stress better

• Increase physical activities that help to release happy hormones in the body and provides and does wonders to relieve the stress
• Target 8 hours of sleep-in night. It helps to keep hunger hormones under check.
• Meditating helps to reduce stress. It also helps people to be more mindful of food choices.
• Attend social gatherings as connecting with others helps to bring positive thoughts to mind

Stress eating is quite prevalent these days and also ignored easily by people. This is an issue that needs serious consideration and at times professional help of a physician if it stays for a longer period.

Reference list

• Harvard Health Publishing (2018). Why stress causes people to overeat. [online] Harvard Health.
• Melinda (2019). HelpGuide.org. [online] HelpGuide.org.
• Rasheed, N. (2017). Stress-associated eating leads to obesity. International Journal of Health Sciences, [online] 11(2), pp.1–2.