For some people, no matter how much they try to eat healthy, when intense emotions surface, overcoming food cravings seems impossible. We reach for the comfort foods that we hope will make us feel better in the short term, but afterwards often end up feeling down in the dumps. That feeling of shame can be overwhelming — particularly in a diet-driven society where maintaining a healthy relationship with food is difficult, especially if it’s used as a coping mechanism. But why do some people turn to food when they’re stressed while others don't? Are our brains wired differently, or does it just come down to a simple lack of willpower?
Nicole Avena, a neuroscientist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, says when we’re truly stressed, the biological response should be to not eat; when our body releases cortisol, it sends a signal to our brains that we're not hungry. But in our modern times, we’re often reared from a young age to use food to make ourselves feel better. We eat not because we’re hungry, but because we’re signaling the reward systems of the brain. In other words, we're binging or overeating because it releases neurochemicals that make us (temporarily) feel better.
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