As college students, we all experience our fair share of overwhelming stress and emotions that may cause us to adhere to the popular notion of “eating our feelings” to experience temporary comfort.
According to a blog post written by daytime talk show host and health expert Doctor Mehmet Oz, those who “eat their feelings” often use food as a medicine for excessive stress. Oz stated, “The hypothalamus, the site of the satiety center, is also the part of the brain where the mind and body connect through hormones, which talk to the rest of your body. Various brain chemicals that are responsible for our emotions also provide a foundation for why and what we eat at certain times.”
Senior Kiera Bisenius said that she finds herself eating her feelings when she is really stressed out about work or upset about certain things.
“I find that when I am stressed I tend to like comfort food, foods that remind me of home or my mom’s cooking, or I unnecessarily eat an entire bag of chips,” Bisenius said.
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Senior Emily Conrad added, “When I get stressed out about school I eat, or if I get sad I will watch Netflix and eat. I really like to eat gummy worms when I get stressed out, or mozzarella sticks.”
Unlike Bisenius and Conrad, senior Cara Zembsch said that she rarely eats when she gets too stressed out.
“I am generally not someone who stress eats, but those rare times when I do I tend to eat chocolate or cupcakes. I think that in those moments when you are really stressed out or upset, it is the one thing you have control over. When something upsets you there’s nothing you can do to change the situation, so the one thing you can control is choosing something to eat that will make you happy,” Zembsch said.
Although eating may provide comfort in the moment of overwhelming emotions and stress, Bisenius said that it does not help her completely feel better about the situation that caused her to stress eat.
“Sometimes I find myself being disappointed that I ate as much as I did or I’m annoyed that I did not pick healthier options to snack on. But the reality is that sometimes you just need to let yourself have those moments and work through whatever is bothering you and move on. There’s no need to feel crappy about yourself,” Bisenius said.
She continued, “I think the comfort of food is more psychological.”
Conrad added, “Eating does not comfort me because it makes me feel worse after even though it makes me feel better in the moment. I do not like how much I eat when I get stressed out because it is too much.”
Like Conrad, Bisenius said that she does not like how much she eats when she is “eating her feelings.” She said, “I have two sides of being stressed. One side is where I don’t eat at all or find myself not even feeling hungry and one where I really do ‘eat my feelings.’ I feel like neither are necessarily good for you or beneficial but at the end of the day, one day or a few days of these types of behavior isn’t that bad, nothing is bad in moderation.”
Zembsch said that, since she is someone who does not usually stress eat, she does not put too much effort in staying away from comfort food.
“When I am stressed out my hunger level decreases. I think that cause of whatever is stressing me out makes me too sad to even think about food,” Zembsch said.
Bisenius added that she feels the best way to get through these feelings is to get active.
“Go to the gym and workout, go for a hike with friends or on a short road trip. The best way to work through things is to get out there and enjoy the world around you with friends and family and remember to organize your time well,” Bisenius said.
Brogan Wessell can be contacted at bwessell@kscequinox.com
