Stress eating is called that way because it tends to come into being each time you’re feeling stressed.
Basically, it’s all about consuming food not because you are hungry and you wish to supply your body with much-needed nutrients but because you do not feel okay. It goes without saying that there are so many unfavorable effects stress eating has on your overall health, and this article will discuss some of them.
It’s also sometimes referred to as emotional eating because it’s not just stress that can trigger stress eating but also strong emotions such as sadness, frustration, anger and even happiness.
The problem with stress eating is that it causes you to gravitate towards comfort foods — we all know that they are those that contain a lot of sugar and fat. This is the reason why stress eating is regarded as something that isn’t healthy.
Experts say that you may be at risk of encountering the following if you fail to put an end to your stress eating:
Heart Disease
The consumption of anything that’s loaded with sugar and fat can wreak havoc on the heart and the rest of the cardiovascular system. Such can be blamed on an increase in the blood pressure reading (hypertension) and bad cholesterol levels.
Having heart disease is a very serious matter — it is in fact regarded by the World Health Organization or WHO as the leading cause of death in the United States and elsewhere on the planet.
Diabetes
It goes without saying that the levels of sugar or glucose in your bloodstream can considerably increase if you are fond of having sugary treats each time you’re feeling stressed. This can pave the way for insulin resistance, which is basically the one that causes diabetes to strike in the first place.
What’s so terrifying about diabetes is that it’s an incurable disease, which means that you have no choice but to have it for as long as you’re breathing once it appears. Also, there are many serious health complications associated with it.
Obesity
Stress eating can cause you to supply your body with more calories than it needs. This is something that can easily cause your waistline to expand and potentially lead to obesity, a medical condition in which the individual has a lot of excess weight or body fat.
Not a lot of people are aware that obesity is actually a disease, and it’s considered as the second leading cause of preventable death in the United States. And by the way, doctors say that so many different serious health problems may stem from obesity, ranging from heart disease to certain types of cancer.
Digestive Distress
Eating more than you should can certainly leave your digestive system experiencing a great deal of stress. This is especially true if you are suffering from acid reflux — stress is something that can trigger it, as well as the intake of a lot of foods especially those that are laden with fat.
Stress eating at night can make matters worse because acid reflux can come into being as soon as you hop into bed to sleep. Failure to get a good night’s sleep can leave you feeling even more stressed, thus turning you into a stress eater further.
Depression
Earlier, it was mentioned that stress eating is sometimes known as emotional eating because it can be triggered by strong emotions such as sadness. When using food as a coping mechanism, it’s not really dealing with the problem but simply covering it up.
This can cause one’s depression to considerably intensify as it’s not being addressed as it should. What’s more, the effect of stress eating on the figure can definitely cause a significant decline in one’s self-esteem and self-confidence, and this can cause further depression.
