Episode 58-The holidays aren't always cheery and joyful, right? Sometimes they stir up stress, hurt, and other negative feelings. We deal with these feelings in different ways, but one way is eating. Do you eat when you feel sad? Hurt? Disappointed? If you do this often, it may be a sign of something much bigger called emotional eating. In Episode 57, I talked about how emotional eating starts. In this episode, I share the detrimental health effects of emotional eating. One of the worst emotional eating effects is a shortened lifespan. That's right! Let's dig in and discover how emotional eating is not only bad for your waist line, but also bad for your emotional, mental, and spiritual health as well.
Emotional Eating Effects
Your mental and emotional health
One of the less obvious emotional eating effects but also one of the most devastating is what goes on in your mind. Emotional eating sets up a vicious cycle. First, you eat because you feel bad. You might feel sad, hurt, angry, depressed, frustrated, defeated. But, instead of evaluating why you feel that way, you eat. Instead of confronting the situation and resolving it, you eat. Then, you feel better for a little while. Eventually, though, the effect wears off and you feel the urge to eat again. After all, the thing that stirred up those feelings is still there. Meanwhile, inside your mind, you tell yourself things like, You are such a pig. There you go again. You deserve it, fatty. They're probably right. You can't control yourself, stuffing your face like that. This negative self-talk drives you to eat even more to stuff those feelings, too. And it just keeps going. You may even come to believe what you tell yourself.
Your physical health
Of course, another emotional eating effect is weight gain. In the podcast, I talk about some other factors in your body that compound the effects of this weight gain. One that you may not know about is sleep apnea. Excessive weight can impact your breathing at night and prevent you from getting a good night's sleep. Because people tend to eat a lot carbs and sugars with emotional eating, diabetes is a serious emotional eating effect. We choose carbs rather than fats or proteins because the sweet taste is comforting. I talk more about this on the podcast as well.
Your spiritual health: the worst emotional eating effect of all
Emotional eating may start out as an occasional binge to drown your sorrows. But, it can also develop into a full-blown food addiction and idolatry. That's why it's such a hard habit to break and why some people can't lose weight. Instead of seeking comfort from other people and especially from Jesus, you seek comfort from food. The cycle is powerful and triggers the rewards center in the brain, much like other types of addictions. The more you do it, the more the habit becomes ingrained, and the harder it is to reverse. But, it can be reversed! If drug addicts, alcoholics, and other types of addicts can be healed, so can you!

If you need help with conquering cravings and getting control of your sugar addiction, check out my Ditch the Sugar Habit Challenge Bundle