Raw Comfort Foods for Emotional Eaters
Perhaps as many as 80% of all obese people eat not because they're hungry, but to fill the hunger of their hearts. Emotional eating means eating because you're feeling any strong emotion. Rage, anger, hurt, love, depression, boredom…and you eat.
As you progress on your raw food journey, you may find yourself eating cooked or processed foods. Don't berate yourself. Take steps to dig out the roots of emotional eating and plant new seeds of comfort and love.
Emotional Eating's Many Disguises
Emotional eating is like a spy that dons many disguises to blend into the crowd. Today he wears a fedora and an overcoat and joins the rush of commuters heading to work. Tomorrow he looks like the guy next door in jeans a t shirt watering his lawn and annoyed that the kids left their bikes out again.
Emotional eating sneaks up on you. It hits when you least expect it. For many people, childhood or life events forced them to squish emotions into a little mental black box so they wouldn't escape. Over time, you may even have conditioned yourself to reach for certain foods when particular emotions are trigger.
Some common food reactions to emotions include:
• Craving sweet and creamy foods for comfort
• Desiring sweet foods to celebrate joyful moments
• Crunching on salty, hard snack foods when angry
• Overeating to the point of feeling sick and full when facing something scary
• Reaching for sweets when feeling hurt and angry
Everyone's emotional responses are different, so you may in fact reach for the bag of potato chips to celebrate or a candy bar when you're angry. No matter what you reach for though, you need to find a healthy alternative.
Get Support for Emotional Eating Issues
Find support to help you accept emotions. Counseling, therapy, spiritual practices such as meditation, and 12-step help groups like Overeaters Anonymous can help you deal with the cravings for cooked comfort foods when the old urges strikes.
Find Healthy Outlets for Emotions
Part of successfully dealing with emotional eating is to find healthy substitutes. Exercise is an excellent outlet for emotions. Weight training, boxing, kickboxing, running, bicycling, walking, or swimming all help you burn calories and sweat off extra emotions. Mindfulness exercises like t'ai chi and yoga create a soothing and calming atmosphere while toning the body.
Substitute Raw Comforts for Cooked Comforts
Lastly, make sure you have some raw comfort foods that satisfy the urge when it strikes so you're not dialing the take out places from your old lifestyle.
Raw food brownies, for example, can be made from ground walnuts, dates, and natural cacao powders and satisfy your sweet tooth. If you crave a satisfying crunch, raw celery and carrot sticks can help, or a handful of raw almonds or cashews. Creamy and smooth cold desserts that taste as wonderful as ice cream include coconut and banana "ices" run through special juicers. This treat fools even those still eating the SAD diet into thinking they've just hit Baskin Robbins!
Whatever you do, don't give up on yourself. It takes the average person five years or more to successful change to a raw food diet. Love yourself, and take steps to deal with emotional eating.
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These statements have not been evaluated by the food and drug administration. The preceding information and/or products are for educational purposes only and are not meant to diagnose, prescribe, or treat illness. Please consult your doctor before making any changes or before starting ANY exercise or nutritional supplement program or before using this information or any product during pregnancy or if you have a serious medical condition.
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