At this point, many of us are already clear that we do not always eat out of hunger. We also eat when we are sad, nervous, angry, bored… And many of us know that sometimes this impulse to eat is totally unstoppable. It is what many experts call “emotional hunger.” And can you calm down? Yes, our diet can help us regain harmony.
Foods that maintain emotional balance
What is this “emotional nutrition”? A formula to control “emotional hunger”. As? The nutrients in some foods are an extraordinary help to maintain emotional balance. There are so many possibilities that it will be very easy for you to include any of them in your daily diet.
1. Omega-3
These healthy fats form the basis of a particularly anti-inflammatory type of diet, neuroprotective and jealous of emotional well-being. Students who incorporate them into their diet with food (vegetable oils, nuts…) or in the form of supplements show a dramatic decrease in anxiety rates, in addition to decreasing symptoms of depression.
2. Turmeric
Curcumin is a magic molecule with more than 100 beneficial activities in the body. In addition to being anticancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and many other things, it has the precious ability to cross the blood-brain barrier in the brain, where it develops its neuroprotective role (beneficial for neurodegenerative diseases, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, cerebral stroke…), and is capable of to improve mood.
3. Fermented and probiotic
A multitude of vegetables and fermented dairy products act as balancers for the intestinal microbial flora., the microbiota, responsible for producing most of the body’s serotonin, the main neurotransmitter related to mood. 95% of serotonin is produced in the intestine and, among other functions, regulates mood, emotions and appetite. Avoiding elements of tension (toxic, medications and others) and the correct supply of probiotics is essential.
4. Nuts
In general, they all provide various minerals, such as magnesium and iron, which prevent neuronal fatigue and associated anxiety states. Some, like cashews, are especially rich in tryptophan, the precursor amino acid for serotonin, which is the neurotransmitter that gives serenity, calm and patience, as well as helping you sleep well, relax…
5. Red fruits
Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, pomegranates, blueberries and others, rich in flavonoids and anthocyanins, offer an incomparable cascade of healthy substances that are highly beneficial for relieving stress and anxiety. They contribute to the production of dopamine, that facilitates cognitive tasks and stimulates a balanced state of mind.
6. Chocolate, tea and coffee
Highlights the antioxidant role of green tea, the stimulating effect on the central nervous system of coffee in adequate mini doses, which increases the level of endorphins, and dark chocolate, without added sugar, which reduces cortisol, the stress hormone, and generates well-being and a good mood.
Psychonutrition against emotional hunger
Emotional hunger often masquerades as appetite. How can we detect it?
- Recognize and attend to your emotional triggers: Difficulties, loneliness, fears and stressful situations hide behind binge eating.
- Pay attention to a healthy diet helps balance emotions, anxiety and stress.
- The emotional body will not be satisfied until it finds its own food: affection, physical contact, exercise, a massage, meditation, peace…
- Eat consciously appreciating the texture when chewing, slowly, savoring the food, sitting at the table, without rushing.
- Practice emotional nutrition without falling into obsessions.
A story of kilos, stress and bacteria
Today I met the neighbor downstairs in the elevator, an old childhood friend whom I have always seen very overwhelmed by her overweight. She seemed happier than usual, her eyes brighter, and I took the opportunity to offer her my best smile and ask her how she is..
With her small, soft and shy voice, she told me that it was better, that she came from the doctor for the usual, “you know”, the overweight thing (“well, actually, obesity”), the insomnia and the . But today the new doctor has explained something that has encouraged her and she is going to start a “natural treatment” that will be good for all that happens to her, also anxiety and binge eating, and will help her regain her natural weight. her.
As she has managed to interest me, and today I have seen her more open than usual, I went down to her floor and for twenty-five minutes she told me on the landing the reason for her hope and illusion.
The macrobiota affects our behavior
It turns out that we all have a lot of millions of little bugs in our intestines, which are usually beneficial and necessary.and without which we couldn’t live, but sometimes, for reasons that he can’t remember now… Oh yes, the thing about being born by caesarean section and having many ear infections as a child that they treated with antibiotics.. .
The point is that they can lose their balance and, although it is very surprising, they produce I don’t know what substances that affect their metabolism, and that is why they have been overweight for so many years and have all these health problems.
But it is also that these little bugs –the “microbiota that they have told me are called that”– are capable of affecting their behavior, and her doctor has explained to her that they are responsible for her having anxiety attacks and also for the fact that she cannot resist eating non-stop, standing there, in front of the fridge, until she finishes the whole chocolate bar .
Now she has realized that it is true, when she argues with her mother or her boyfriend, or she has problems at work, that’s when she gets home more anxious than ever and when she starts eating the most… and then her stomach hurts. Apparently it is due to stress, which releases adrenaline and corticosteroids and further alters the composition of the bugs, so that the emotions in her brain change and then she feels bad and cannot resist eating and eating.
Probiotics help balance our appetite
“But the good news is here!”. She reaches into her big bag and finds a shiny blue and white box: “Probiotics”. Yes sir, this is the miracle that will put the little bugs in your gut in order so that they can recover their lost balance and help you sleep, change your metabolism and, above all, above all, avoid anxiety attacks, headaches, stomach and binge.
In addition, the doctor has also recommended and taught her to do some abdominal breathing exercises, a type of infradiaphragmatic breathing in which you have to concentrate “on the Hara” (you don’t know exactly where that falls, but it doesn’t matter, you’ll find it), and you come from the sports store because you bought some new shoes for start walking every day. With the number of antidepressant and anxiolytic medications that he has taken…
The doctor has told her to do all that and to come back in two weeks. Then they will review what you eat, which is also important, although you have reassured her that they will be easy measures to incorporate. Actually, she already knows what she has to do, what she needs is to find her willpower, but her doctor has assured her that she will find it that way.
Is there emotional nutrition?
I say goodbye and go up the stairs the two floors that I have left to get to my house, with a smile on my face that does not fade, and happy for the contagious joy of my friend and neighbor. As soon as I walk in, I can’t resist searching the internet for the keywords I remember from all the explanation you gave me: “probiotic, emotional hunger, psychonutrition…” and what they say is amazing.
I read with amazement that almost everything he has told me is true – the truth is that it was a bit hard for me to believe it. SScientific studies, after many experimental studies in animals and people, have verified that intestinal bacteria have the ability to control not only appetitebut also the type of diet, the preferences of the host and its behavior.
It turns out that there is a nervous system in the intestine, which they call the second brain, which communicates with the brain in the head through the vagus nerve and also through the substances produced by microbes (microbiota for scientists), which pass into the blood and from there reach the head.
At the same time, the central nervous system also influences the microbiota by giving orders to the intestine, modifying their movement and peristalsis, their secretions and permeability, which determine the living conditions of microorganisms. A kind of emotional nutrition, which nourishes both our body and our nerve cells, and restores harmony and health.
Obesity and overweight are the result of an unhealthy diet
But what I found most amazing is the evidence that certain gut bacteria can influence brain function and behavior, including my neighbor’s anxiety attacks and binge eating.
The bacteria that induce the craving for sweets are those that grow with these foods, so it is that they are the ones that motivate those preferences in the host as a way to ensure their own survival… Amazing, right? Through the activity of dopamine and a certain peptide Y, they behave like an alien within the body, driving our own inclinations and behaviors to ensure their own well-being.
In addition to directing our steps and determining my friend’s anxiety attacks, they also produce physical and metabolic changes that make you overweight.
I read that when firmicutes predominate, bacteria that have a great facility to extract energy from food, then our body gets fatwhile with the bacteroidetes the balance is restored.
Surprising, right? As it is that we have hundreds of times more genes in the microbiota than in our body.
Or that a skinny organism gains weight by doing a microbiota transplant from another that is overweight and vice versa.
Or that antibiotic treatment makes us fat because it destroys the balance between the enormous diversity of our microorganisms.
Physical exercise, another great forgotten
Amazing. I want a doctor like my neighbor’s, who instead of prescribing me, explains and invites me to do physical exercise and infradiaphragmatic breathing. I’m going to tell my co-workers tomorrow, who I know will make a funny face when I start talking.
I will explain to you that you cannot even suspect to what extent the act of eating is complex, that it goes far beyond satisfying the energy needs of the physical body: it also has to do with the satisfaction of the affective needs of the emotional bodythrough the stimulation of the neurological centers of pleasure and reward, which feed on the…