‘Have had issues when it comes to our weights’: Sonam Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor open up about emotional eating

During the course of the conversation, Arjun opened up about his massive weight loss transformation and also addressed his struggles with health and fitness. Talking about the same, mom-to-be Sonam said, “There has not been a time when his personal life hasn’t been hard. All three of us [Sonam, Arjun, and Karan] have had issues when it comes to our weights, food, etc. That comes from an emotional place, always. When you are going through those ups and downs, you kind of take solace in food, like ‘Let me just have this packet of chips’. It’s emotional eating.”

What is emotional eating?

Simply put, it means finding comfort in food. “Emotional eating is when people use food as a way to deal with their emotions and feelings instead of to satisfy their hunger,” said Dr Rahul Rai Kakkar, Consultant, Psychiatrist, Narayana Superspeciality Hospital, Gurugram.

Causes

According to the expert, the following could be the possible reasons behind emotional eating.

*Work stress
*Financial worries
*Health problems
*Relationship struggles
*Anger
*Boredom
*Depression
*Frustration
*Loneliness
*Loss
*Resentment
*Stress

 

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Harmful effects of emotional eating

While emotional eating can give you comfort in the short term, it can be damaging to your health. “Emotional eating can cause overeating because it’s not fulfilling the need for calories and nutrients. When your body doesn’t need the food, taking extra calories at that time can lead you to gain weight. One could become obese or overweight by emotional eating,” Dr Kakkar explained.

How to prevent it?

To prevent the aforementioned harmful effects of emotional eating, one can practise the following habits.

*Keeping a food diary.
*Deal with stress.
*Have a hunger reality check.
*Get support from family and friends.
*Fight boredom by doing different activities.
*Take away cravings.
*Don’t deprive yourself.
*Snack healthy food instead of junk food.
*Learn from your setbacks.

The expert advised taking professional help, if required, to manage any kind of stress or anxiety.

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