“Just have some willpower and you will lose weight”

The person speaking those words does not understand the problems associated with  emotional eating.  Emotional eating is not about food, physiological hunger or cravings.  It is not about lack of willpower, weakness or ignorance.  When one eats for emotional reasons, it is not the food that is needed, but rather something else that is being yearned for that is not being met.

In her book, “Eating in the Light of the Moon:  How Women Can Transform Their Relationship with Food through Myths, Metaphors and Storytelling”, Anita Johnson writes, “someone who is addicted to eating is actually starving on an emotional and spiritual level.  Her longing for food is a longing for emotional and spiritual nourishment.  This is what she is really in pursuit of when she sets out for the grocery store.  No matter how much ice-cream she devours, she cannot fill this longing because she is filling her stomach, not her heart, nor her spirit.”

The diet industry does not address the major issue concerning the emotional eater--there is no diet that can fix or cure an emotional eater because the cause of the overeating is not food related. 

In truth, almost any diet works if it is followed.  If I told my clients to eat 500 calories per day of chocolate, 500 calories of cheese and 200 calories of anything else they wanted, chances are they would lose weight on 1,400 calories per day.  As a nutritionist, of course I wouldn’t do this.  The point I’m making is that any diet within a normal caloric value will help someone lose weight if they follow the plan. 

The problem is that addressing caloric intake alone ignores the emotional eaters and thus does not fully address the fact that society is getting fatter, childhood obesity and obesity-related diseases are at an all-time high, and the diet industry is a multi-billion dollar industry.

If we want to help the emotional eater overcome overeating, then we need to address the disease of that individual on an emotional level as well as on a physical level.  To be at ease with oneself is to thrive and be well by eating healthy, engaging in physical activity, and participating in activities which enrich and inspire, promote self-worth and purpose and improve self-esteem.  It is then that the emotional eater can learn to cry when sad, laugh when happy, express anger in healthy ways when angry, and yes learn to eat just when physically hungry.