DEL.ICIO.USAJC HEALTH NEWS
Stress can lead to nervous noshing
Turbulent economic times can take toll on healthy eating
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Beckie Hawk sometimes turns to the fridge when she’s stressed.
BRANT SANDERLIN / bsanderlin@ajc.com
Foot Solutions CEO Ray Margiano eats lunch with his walking pole by his side; the poles help maximize calorie burn. Foot Solution employees often eat together and walk before lunch to stave off stressful eating.
Brant Sanderlin / bsanderlin@ajc.com
bsanderlin@ajc.com Katie Ingraham (back left) fends off stressful eating by taking walks with her Foot Solutions co-workers during their lunch break. She also brings healthy food to work.
Brant Sanderlin/Staff
Katie Ingraham, middle, eats lunch with coworkers Christie Dennis, left, Terry Kennedy and Sonia Favors. To stave off stressful eating, Ingraham often brings her lunch and exercises with coworkers.
- Topics: Atlanta hospitals | Weight loss | CDC | Cancer | Swine Flu
- Back to Health news
DOCTOR IS IN
 | Why worry? |
THINNER YOU
 | Lose weight. Together. |
So the self-employed Web designer posted a sign on it to help her avoid seeking sweets for comfort: “It’s not in here.”
Most of the time, she says, it works. She pops a piece of sugarless gum in her mouth and walks away. But during these turbulent economic times, the allure of chocolate ice cream can be unrelenting.
“Sometimes, I read the sign and say, ‘Forget you — I am diving in,’ ” says the Norcross woman, who is trying to lose weight but is satisfied to simply maintain her weight these days.
As the economy spirals downward, mounting stress can trigger nervous noshing — everything from eating too much of a good thing to inhaling a bag of Doritos to dashes to the vending machine. If you find yourself inventing excuses at work to walk by the nearest desk with a bowl of Hershey Kisses, this likely applies to you.
Forget the Freshman 15. Offices — and homes for the newly unemployed — are the new breeding ground for getting chubby. Call it the Reorg 15. The Layoff Lard.
With about 65 percent of Americans overweight or obese, stress eating, sometimes referred to as “emotional eating,” is already an issue for many people.
Studies show stress elevates levels of cortisol, known as the “stress hormone,” and sparks cravings for pleasurable foods such as cream puffs and mashed potatoes.
But while the pleasure derived from stress eating can disappear one minute after touching the lips, its calories will stick to the hips far longer.
A “Stress in America” survey released in October by the American Psychological Association found that 8 in 10 Americans point to the economy as a major source of stress. And about half of Americans say they overeat or chow down on junk food as a coping mechanism.
Jennifer Slater, who is in her 50s, packed on 15 pounds after losing her job as a real estate paralegal last year.
“I’d go for any carbs: bread, chips and mac ‘n’ cheese,” said Slater, who lives in Acworth. “I was stressed, I was bored, and there was the fridge.”
She didn’t realize her waist was expanding so much until six weeks ago, when her daughter took her photograph.
“I had a white sweatshirt on and I looked like Orca the killer whale. I kept asking her, ‘Do I really look like that?’ “
The photograph spurred a major lifestyle change. Now when she feels stress, she drinks water and goes for a walk. She chronicles her successes — and setbacks — on her new Web site, mybootcampdiet.com.
And she uses that “Orca” image as a reminder — a “before” photo posted on her kitchen wall.
Recession-proof?
Beverly Bird is a psychologist who runs Inlighten, a Roswell weight-loss program for men and women struggling with emotional eating. She says that in times of economic stress, people often fall back on personal comfort foods, favorites from childhood that they have emotional attachments to — apple pie, mashed potatoes, soft-serve ice cream cones and the like.
Bird says that despite the recession, business is steady, even up slightly from previous years, for her program, which costs about $1,000 for 12 weeks.
“We are a cash business — we don’t take insurance — and women are coming in and saying they will put other things on hold, that they’ve got to get a handle on this,” she said.
While impulsively eating M&Ms can offer a temporary emotional boost, it quickly evaporates.
“All of a sudden that food is gone and you are still faced with the same problems,” said Rebecca Reeves, a nutritionist and assistant professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “And that guilt comes rushing over you.”
Fight the urge to nervously eat, she suggests: Count to 10 before diving into the cookie jar, or take a 15-minute walk.
Keeping a balance
Katie Ingraham, a 24-year-old director of social media for Foot Solutions (a company that makes specially designed sneakers for Nordic pole walking), says she believes stress eating is a given these days.
“Absolutely, I feel stressed and pressure to succeed,” she said. “And sometimes, I’ll be at my desk, and think, ‘Man, I need a Jolly Rancher.’ “
And sometimes, that pint of Heath Bar crunch ice cream is calling her name, and she just can’t say no.
But she’s taking steps to offset the damage by packing low-fat lunches and walking three times a week with her co-workers during their lunch break. She’s managed to maintain her weight but has watched some of her friends and family members get bigger.
“It’s a seemingly uncontrollable epidemic,” Ingraham said. “Very scary.”
Anna Smith, owner of Revolution, a personal training facility in Lawrenceville, recently hosted a workshop on emotional eating. She says she believes most people — including herself — grapple with stress eating.
“I still struggle with it every day,” said Smith, 34, who lost 45 pounds about five years ago.
Smith, who sticks to a low-fat diet and eschews processed food, manages to apply diversion tactics most of the time when she feels the tug to stress eat.
Still, once a week, she gives in to stress-induced cravings for something sweet — a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, chocolate bar or candy. And she doesn’t beat herself up over it.
“I count the calories, assess the damage and let it go,” she said. “You want to keep moving forward and remember, ‘tomorrow is another day.’”
SNACKING STRATEGIES
Take five: Before you inhale that bag of Doritos, step away for five minutes. Take deep breaths or go for a walk. Your urge to eat will likely pass.
Plan ahead: Keep healthy snacks — apples, pears, high-fiber granola bars and small portions of almonds — at your desk. You are less likely to head to the vending machine or the communal tray of Krispy Kremes when you have healthy options on hand.
Take more steps: Take the stairs, go for a walk at lunch. This burns calories — and reduces stress.
Be social: Talk to your spouse. Pick up the phone and talk with a friend. You may just want use your mouth to talk, not eat.
Treat co-workers with fruit: Instead of donuts or biscuits, bring apples, pears or bananas to share with your co-workers.
Avoid temptation: If you have trouble resisting a candy bowl at work, avoid it. If you can’t resist chips or ice cream at home, don’t keep them on hand.
Sources: Inlighten weight loss program; Rebecca Reeves, a nutritionist and assistant professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
BETTER EATING ON A BUDGET
Eat less meat and more eggs: Think about replacing one expensive meat-based meal for a less expensive egg-based meal per week.
Eat more beans: Make better use of beans as a supplement to a meal or as a main ingredient, keeping in mind that beans are both a vegetable and a protein.
Don’t pay extra for what you can do yourself: Wash your own romaine lettuce rather than buying it pre-washed and you can save $2 a pound. Same goes for carrots.
Make your own turkey slices: Going to the deli will give you sticker shock. Cook a turkey breast for Sunday dinner and use the leftovers for weekday lunches.
Eat seasonally: Get the fresh produce that is available locally or in season and hasn’t required huge transportation costs to bring it to your table (e.g., melons in summer, apples in autumn, etc.).
Sources: Dr. David Whitehouse, chief medical officer for OptumHealth Behavioral Solutions (a UnitedHealth Group company), and Joan Salge Blake, a registered dietician at Boston University
.JPG)
-1.JPG)
Services »
