Is It Hunger or Habit? Recognizing Unhealthy Eating Patterns.
Do you ever find yourself eating when you are not hungry? Reaching for a snack at the same time of day without giving it much thought? New research is showing that overeating may indeed be a bad habit, triggered by activity in the brain. This is because a complicated process of neuronal reward is occurring inside the brain when we are hungry. Neurons trigger the reward and motivation aspects of eating, and leave us feeling satisfied after a meal or snack. However, these eating activities and subsequent feelings of satisfaction can, over time, contribute to the formation of poor eating habits which occur even in the absence of hunger! This can result in chronic overeating, obesity and other health complications.
Continue reading this month’s newsletter for more information on eating out of habit and what we can do to avoid or break these unhealthy patterns.

 

Habitual Eating:
According to the National Institutes on Health (NIH), studies are increasingly yielding evidence that show a significant part of daily eating behaviors consist of habits. Studies investigating the behavioral and psychosocial determinants of food choice show that habit is one of the most powerful predictors of eating behavior.
There are many reasons why eating habits (verses eating to satisfy hunger) may form. One reason is that eating can be an easy outlet for the extra energy that comes with feeling edgy or uncomfortable in some way. Not only does it give us something to do, it also distracts us from whatever's making us nervous. And our brain neurons reward us for it. Reaching for a convenient and tasty food item may relieve some of the initial discomfort we are feeling. However, this satisfaction does not last and often has longer-term negative effects on our health.

 

Common Reasons We May Overeat:
1. Stress
2. Fatigue
3. Nerves
4. Anxiety
5. Peer Pressure
6. Alcohol Use
7. Pictures of Food/Ads
8. Habit or Mindless Eating
9. Boredom

 

Mindful Eating 101

Mindfulness generally means bringing awareness to the present moment without judgment.
According to Dr. Judson Brewer, a psychiatrist, neuroscientist and director of research and innovation at Brown University’s Mindfulness Center, being more aware of our eating behaviors can help us change them. He suggests the following steps:
1. Map out your eating patterns and habit loops (ask yourself, “why am I eating? Am I hungry or is there something else going on?”)
2. Change the reward value of the behavior (are there any negatives to this food item I am eating? Is it sticky, salty, greasy?).
3. Find a more rewarding replacement behavior that makes the body feel content.

 

The Food and Thought Program works to promote awareness and provide short term counselling around the important link between. nutrition and emotional health. For more information or for a referral to the program, please contact the Food and Thought Program at 781-599-0110.

This work is supported by the Beverly and Addison Gilbert Hospital Community Benefits Community Grant Program and the Essex County Community Foundation Behavioral Health Partnership Grant.

Your Brain on Healthy Foods: The Benefits of Whole Foods
Just as there is no single, “miracle” pill to prevent cognitive decline, there is no one food that can ensure a sharp brain as you age. However, nutritionists emphasize that the most important strategy for brain health is to follow a healthy dietary pattern that includes a lot of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains.
Research shows that following a dietary pattern that emphasizes whole foods (food that has been processed or refined as little as possible and is free from additives or other artificial substances) and minimizes or eliminates foods that are high in saturated fats, added sugars and sodium) can lead to optimum physical and emotional health.
Examples of healthy dietary patterns include the Mediterranean diet, the MIND diet, and the traditional Japanese diet.

The Brain-Gut Connection :
Our brains talk to our gut, and our gut talks back. While the brain communicates with all body systems, this communication is particularly strong between the brain and the gut. In fact more information passes between your brain and your gut than with any other body system. This is because there are more nerve cells (the system used for this bi-directional communication) in your gut than anywhere else in your body, outside of your brain. The brain and gut communicate about many things, including practical, physical, and emotional matters. Some of these are: hunger and satiety, food preferences and cravings, food sensitivities and intolerances, digestion, metabolism, mood, behavior, stress levels, pain sensitivity, cognitive function, immunity.

The Best Foods For Brain Health :
1. Green, leafy vegetables, such as spinach, kale, and swiss chard
2. Fatty fish such as salmon, cod, canned light tuna, and pollack
3. Avocados
4. Berries such as blueberries, rasp-berries and blackberries
5. Walnuts
6. Flax Seeds
https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/foods-linked-to-better-brainpower; https://www.health

This is What Happens When You Give Up Diet Soda:
1. Brain fog clears and thinking and concentration improve.
2. Migraines go away.
3. Food tastes better.
4. It helps weight loss.
5. Bones become stronger.
6. Risk for diabetes and fat storage goes down.
7. Your kidneys function better.
https://www.prevention/health/effects-diet-soda

https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/foods-linked-to-better-brainpower; 
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/nutritional-psychiatry-your-brain-on-food-201511168626; 
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/the-gut-brain-connection

The Food and Thought Program works to promote awareness and provide short term counselling around the important link between. nutrition and emotional health. For more information or for a referral to the program, please contact the Food and Thought Program at 781-599-0110.

This work is supported by the Beverly and Addison Gilbert Hospital Community Benefits Community Grant Program and the Essex County Community Foundation Behavioral Health Partnership Grant.

Why We Crave Certain Foods: Understanding What Drives Snacking
Cravings are frequent, specific, intense desires to eat a particular type of food. Cravings often involve ultra-processed, salty, sweet, or crunchy snacks. According to Erin Morse, chief clinical dietitian at UCLA Health, cravings are not about hunger. She explains, “Hunger is the need for food for fuel, for nutrition, for all the good things that our bodies and our brains need." In contrast, with cravings, "Our bodies are telling us that we want something to eat."
People might experience food cravings seemingly out of nowhere, or they may be related to seeing, smelling, or hearing about a specific food. For example, seeing an advertisement for French fries could trigger a craving for them. But because cravings are about what we want to eat and not what our bodies need to eat to function optimally, we are at risk of eating too many calories and becoming under-nourished. This is because unhealthy food items that we may come to crave often have little or no nutritive value. So why do we crave them? Continue reading to find out more about the causes of food cravings and for some tips on how to reduce them.

Common Triggers for Cravings:
The brain regions responsible for memory, pleasure and reward play a role in cravings, as do hormonal fluctuations, emotions, and even hunger (though they are not the same as hunger). Seeing an advertisement for particular food items, stress or “comfort eating”, menstruation or pregnancy, and even waiting too long between or skipping meals can all trigger cravings. Additional triggers may include:
1. External cues, like watching a favorite TV show that you have a habit of watching while eating ice cream. You'll be-come conditioned to reach for that bowl of ice cream when you watch an episode,
2. Internal cues, such as sadness, can prompt people to crave certain foods too.
3. Deprivation. If you're restricting food or dieting, you may find yourself craving certain foods by the end of the day. .
4. Poor sleep. "Studies show that lack of sleep can increase appetite and increase cravings," .
5. Social environment. Think of the workplace vending ma-chine or your partner who is constantly baking treats. "They're seeing it all the time; they want it all the time,"
Sources for this newsletter: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318441#replacing-cravings https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318441#replacing-cravings

Tips For Reducing Food Cravings
1. Being dehydrated can make you feel hungry or increase food cravings.
2. Get enough sleep. Not getting enough sleep (at least 7 hours) can contribute to increased hunger and cravings.
3. Eat enough protein. It will help you feel satisfied longer and reduce craving.
4. Snack smart.
5. Remove triggers.

Healthy Snack Ideas for Every Kind of Food Craving
1. Instead of chips, try 1/4 cup of lightly salted nuts.
2. Instead of milk chocolate, choose antioxidant-rich dark chocolate with 70% cocoa or more.
3. Instead of pastries or can-dies, switch to fresh or dried fruit.
4. Instead of soda, try seltzer water with a squeeze of fruit juice or a slice of fresh orange, lemon, lime or sprig of mint.
5. Instead of full-fat cheese, switch to low-fat cheese. And remember, always in moderation.

The Food-Feeling Connection: Emotional Eating and Your Health

The challenges of daily life can, at times, leave us all feeling tired, stressed and overwhelmed. In response to some of these emotions, you may find yourself seeking comfort in food. This manner of coping with difficult emotions is called Emotional Eating. Because this type of eating is not the result of hunger, it is common to eat a lot more calories than our bodies need or will use, and we often gravitate towards food that are high in fat, sugar and salt. While these types of foods may be more appealing when you are feeling stress, are in a bad mood, or feel bad about yourself, the satisfaction they provide is short-lived. In fact, these types of high fat, high sugar foods may leave you feeling worse than before, and can have negative and long-lasting effects on your physical and emotional health and well-being.

Recognizing Emotional Eating

Everyone has bad days, but not everyone uses food to get through them. Some behaviors and thought patterns can increase your chance of becoming an emotional eater. Some risk factors include:
• Difficulty managing your emotions.
• Poor body image; being unhappy with your body.
• Dieting and/or feeling deprived of foods.
Emotional eating often becomes a habit. If you use food to self-sooth difficult emotions, you will be more likely to crave the same (unhealthy) foods the next time you are feeling bad. This happens be-cause when you eat foods you enjoy, you stimulate the feel-good centers in your brain, triggering you to eat even more. This makes it more diffi-cult to resist the temptation of unhealthy choices in the future, thus setting up a pattern of unhealthy eating.
Sources: https://www.mountsinai.org/health-library/special-topic/break-the-bonds-of-emotional-eating: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/heres-the-deal-with-your-junk-food-cravings

Breaking the Pattern of Emotional Eating

Emotional eating is a learned behavior that can be unlearned through awareness and attention to your stress management habits. The first step in stopping the pattern of emotional eating is to recognize when it is happening. With this awareness you can take steps to make different choices when the urge to emotional eat appears.
1. Do something else when the urge appears; take a walk, call a friend, engage in an activity you enjoy or are good at.
2. Know your strengths; take note of your suc-cesses and things you are good at.
3. Plan ahead; Do not go hungry. When you are both hungry and stressed, pizza and other fast foods become much more tempting.
4. Make comfort food healthier. Prepare your favorite dishes with fewer calories.

Are you an Emotional Eater?

• Do you eat when you feel angry, depressed, hurt, or otherwise upset?
• Do you eat in response to certain people or situations?
• Do certain places or times of day trigger food cravings?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may have a tendency toward emotional eating. Speak with your health professional about additional ways to manage this behavior.

The Food and Thought Program works to promote awareness and provide short term counselling around the important link between. nutrition and emotional health. For more information or for a referral to the program, please contact the Food and Thought Program at 781-599-0110.

This work is supported by the Beverly and Addison Gilbert Hospital Community Benefits Community Grant Program and the Essex County Community Foundation Behavioral Health Partnership Grant.

The Skinny on Sugar; the good, the bad and the case for moderation! 

Many people celebrate connection, friendship and love relationships with Valentine’s Day sweets. In moderation this is fine for most people. But did you know that too much added sugar (sugar that is not naturally occurring in foods), can lead to low mood, brain fog and even depression? This month’s Food and Thought Newsletter is dedicated to exploring the healthy (and less-healthy) sources of sugar and their impact on emotional health, as well as giving you some practical tips to decrease the amount of added sugar in your diet.

Do We Need Sugar to Survive? Yes, But…. What Type and How Much We Eat Matters…. A Lot!

Sugar is a form of carbohydrate, which the body needs for its preferred source of fuel. The body breaks down all carbohydrates into glucose, which enters the bloodstream and acts as a source of energy. Some sugars, such as glucose, fructose, and lactose, occur naturally in foods and drinks, while others do not. Added sugars refer to any sugars in foods that are NOT naturally occurring, such as sugar in baked goods. According to the American Hearth Association, the body does not need any form of added sugar to function healthily. Eating too much sugar can have an impact on your mental
health and cause issues in your daily life including sugar addiction, inflammation and depression.

How Much Is Too Much?

The American Heart Association recommends a maximum daily added sugar intakes of no more than 10% of calorie intake (less than 36g or 9 teaspoons for males and less than 25g, or 6 teaspoons, for females). Children aged 2–18 years should have less than 25g a day. Studies show, however, that adults are consuming roughly 77 g of added sugar each day, which is more than three times the recommended daily intake for females. Meanwhile, children are consuming close to 81 g each day.

Tips For Cutting Back on Sugar:

1. When thirsty, replace sugary drinks like sodas with water.
2. Reduce the amount of sugar you add to foods like pancakes,
cereal, tea, and coffee. Start by cutting the amount
of sugar by half and gradually reduce it from there.
3. Use fresh or dried fruit in cereal instead of sugar.
4. Reduce the amount of non-nutritive sweeteners.
(Sweet’N Low, Splenda, Equal.)
5. Eat foods that contain natural sweeteners like fruit. If
canned, purchase fruit in water or natural fruit juices and
not syrup.
6. Read nutrition labels and avoid foods with high sugar
content.

The Food and Thought Program works to promote awareness and
provide short term counselling around the important link between.
nutrition and emotional health. For more information or for a referral
to the program, please contact the Food and Thought Program
at 781-599-0110.

This work is supported by the Beverly and Addison Gilbert Hospital Community Benefits Community Grant Program and the Essex
County Community Foundation Behavioral Health Partnership Grant.