Dinner Diva
Food Moods
By Leanne Ely, C.N.C
Food may play a bigger role than just making you grumpy if your hungry. Sometimes just the smell of a turkey roasting can trigger childhood memories of Thanksgiving or the smell of homemade bread might bring a picture of your grandmother to mind. But did you know the foods you crave could be directly related to how you’re feeling?
Recent research shows what many of us knew all along: Our moods dictate what we eat. Here’s a few examples. Do any of these sound familiar to you?
* If you crave tough foods, like meat, or hard and crunchy foods, you could be feeling angry.
* If you crave sugars, you could be feeling depressed.
* If you crave soft and sweet foods, like ice cream, you could be feeling anxious.
* If you crave salty foods, you could be stressed.
* If you crave bulky, fill-you-up foods, like crackers and pasta, you could be feeling lonely and sexually frustrated.
* If you crave anything and everything, you could be feeling jealous.
Not everyone will be the same but recognizing your emotional eating triggers can help you make healthy choices when emotions seem to be ruling you. If you know you turn to a bowl of ice cream every time you are feeling anxious you can recognize the craving for what it is… just a simply craving. Usually cravings don’t last more than a few minutes, especially if you can get your mind on something else.
Using food as an emotional crutch or filler only mask what is really going on with your feelings. Some other things you can turn to are a journal, drink some water, exercise, listen to some good music, work on a craft or hobby, read a good book… the possibilities are as long as your imagination. By feeding our souls with things other than food we strengthen our self-control and our physical and mental health.