How To Stop The Vicious Cycle of Stress Eating

Solutions for When You Can’t Control Overeating

I overeat because I’m stressed, and I’m stressed because I overeat.

Do you identify with the above statement? It seems like a joke, but it’s an honest issue that many of us have faced before, if not struggling with right now.

When we’re stressed, we tend to overeat, and when we overeat because of stress, it’s not just that we feel ashamed about the food we just finished, but our brains are actually put in a dysfunctional state that encourages even more emotional eating. This is because emotional eating triggers certain hormones that signal nutritional deficiency, and can inhibit the synthesis of emotion-lifting neurotransmitters such as serotonin. This deficiency contributes to our low mood levels and inability to cope with stress, further provoking the vicious cycle of emotional eating.

Here is a more complete picture of this process (*or if you’d just like to read my solution, scroll down to subsection “The Solution To Stopping Stress Eating”):

How Low Stomach Acidity Contributes to Stress

The role of stomach acid in depressive symptoms is an interesting one — while it’s hard to argue against the fact that the food we eat has an…