By Dr. Jamie Long
Imagine you’re sitting on the couch enjoying a cozy night at home when you see a commercial advertising scrumptious looking cookies. Suddenly you have an overwhelming hankering for some chocolate chips. Where did that come from? Are you really hungry or just impacted by the power of suggestion and advertising?
In another example, maybe you just finished lunch and have gone back to work. However, it’s difficult to concentrate because you keep thinking about what you’re going to have for dinner. You’re confused and frustrated by these thoughts because you’re not even hungry.
These very common scenarios have many of us questioning how to tell when we are truly hungry or dealing with food noise and/or emotional hunger.
Oftentimes food cravings prompted by thoughts and emotions are confused as physical hunger cues. Food is tangled with many emotions in our culture such as boredom, celebration, pleasure, reward, etc. Most people can relate to noshing on a little something when there’s nothing else to do and that’s completely okay. Emotional eating by and of itself is NOT a bad thing. We all emotionally eat, and it’s normal. But if emotional eating is impacting your happiness or your health, it can be helpful to learn how to recognize the difference between food noise, emotional hunger, and physical hunger.
What is food noise?
‘Food noise’ is a relatively new colloquial phrase used to describe a person’s experience with relentless thoughts about food. Food noise is thinking about food, eating or calories in a manner that makes it difficult to concentrate on other things (e.g., working, following a conversation, etc.).
What is emotional eating?
The term emotional eating is often used interchangeably with food noise, compulsive overeating, and “food addiction.” Emotional eating describes a behavioral pattern of ignoring physical cues of hunger and satiety and eating in response to an emotion. Emotional eaters may engage in frequent episodes of uncontrolled eating, or binge eating, during which one feels out of control — often consuming food past the point of being comfortably full. Emotional eaters may also engage in grazing behavior, (eating continuously throughout the day) resulting in a high number of calories consumed even if the quantities eaten at any one time may be small.
How to tell the difference between food noise, emotional eating, and physical hunger:
- Food noise can occur at any time. If you’re bombarded with thoughts about food without any signs of hunger, it’s might be food noise
- Food noise can be fueled by unworkable beliefs about food. For example, if you hold to rigid rules about what’s okay to eat, when it’s okay to eat, and so forth; you’re more likely to experience food noise
- Food noise and emotional hunger comes on suddenly and randomly; physical hunger comes on gradually
- Emotional eating tends to be more mindless (in front of the TV, computer, while playing on a device)
- Physical hunger is usually felt in the gut, with a growling stomach or nausea. Emotional hunger comes more from the mind (envisioning the taste of a particular food item)
- Emotional food cravings are rigidly specific; physical hunger is open to more variety food options
- Emotional eating passes the point of fullness (satiety) and often results in negative emotional and physcial feelings (guilt, shame, bloat, etc.)
How to cope with food noise and emotional eating
Most people emotionally eat, and that’s okay! We’re hard-wired to enjoy food and sometimes we eat when we’re not hungry, it’s not a big deal. Don’t beat yourself up if this blog post describes your behaviors. However, if food noise or emotional eating has interfered with your quality of life in some way, here are some ideas for what you can do about it.
- Identify your triggers. Take notice of the times you tend to experience food noise or cravings. What time of day is it? How long has it been since you last ate? What are you feeling and what is going on around you? Understanding what prompts the food noise may help you respond differently.
- Assess & challenge your food rules. Do you see foods as either good or bad? Do you have rigid beliefs about when it’s okay to eat and when it’s not? Do you experience feelings of guilt, anxiety or deprivation around food? These are important questions to explore because an inflexible or anxious mindset around food could raise vulnerability to food noise. Challenge yourself to modify these food rules. Where did they come from? Are they workable? Can you challenge the rules to be more flexible?
- Have a competing response identified before food noise/emotional eating begins. If you notice that you experience food noise or tend to feel hungry when you are bored, think of something pleasurable to do instead of going for food. Eating is a rewarding behavior and it can be overused when we feel deprived of life’s other pleasures. Even thinking about food can distract us from something else we don’t want to deal with. Identify how you want to feel and see if it can be achieved with another behavior/thought. Reassure yourself that you can eat something if that’s what you decide that’s best.
- Add more tools for coping. Learn new ways to cope with feelings rather than using food as a primary way to self-soothe. Make peace with all foods and challenge negative internal/external messages about eating. Nurture yourself and strive for a balanced and rewarding life with breaks from stress. And as always, try to prioritize getting enough rest and movement.
What is normal & healthy eating?
In short, normal eating is nourishing your body with nutrient-rich foods and enjoying treats free of guilt. Normal eating is honoring your hunger and fullness. Normal eating is flexible (it’s okay to have cake!) and it is also considers your health needs. Healthy eaters do not restrict or abuse food, they walk the middle path.
In my counseling of those who struggle with disordered eating patterns, several specialists ascribe to a non-diet nutrition philosophy called Intuitive Eating. I.E. is based on the belief that most people instinctually know how to eat (or can learn how to reconnect with this intuition). It emphasizes an adaptive relationship between food, mind, and body by making peace with food and normalizing eating patterns. Intuitive Eaters recognize and distinguish the difference between physical and emotional feelings without depriving themselves or overindulging in food. Two dietitians — Evenly Tribole and Elyse Resch — coined the phrase Intuitive Eating in their 1995 book which is now in its fourth edition. Click here to learn more.
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Dr. Jamie Long offers eating disorder therapy in her private practice, The Psychology Group Fort Lauderdale. Call Today!
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