The connection between gut health and emotional/stress eating

We all eat emotionally from time-to-time. In fact, part of why we recall certain food events, such as childhood backyard BBQs, your grandma’s blueberry pie, or that time you shared a soft-serve ice cream cone with your BIG CRUSH -- is because these food events were punctuated by strong emotions that are then stored in part of your brain that connects your senses to past memories.

You will always feel the same emotions whenever you smell or see those foods of the past.

When we think about emotional eating, however, we often point to the negative feelings that seem to drive our eating choices - as a way of numbing out or comforting ourselves.

Unprocessed and undigested feelings, experiences and stressors will show up on our bodies.

We become more reactive.

We become more compulsive.

We operate with our ”now” needs in mind, not our “future” needs, wants and desires.

Chronic stress and reactiveness increase stress hormones in our bodies, that when not given the opportunity to be released through relaxation techniques, will ultimately increase inflammation in our bodies.

Inflammation and stress can alter and even destroy certain strains of the good bacteria in our bodies. This can lead to an imbalance in our gut flora which, ironically, can negatively further affect your mood, your energy levels, immunity and ability to be resilient to other stressors.

So, learning to deal with chronic stress in your life will be beneficial in both maintaining a healthy microbiome as well as having the potential to reduce your emotional and stress eating.

Win-win right?

I mean, when was the last time you stress-ate after a nice long massage?

So, in the spirit of helping all of us relax more, calm the nervous system and learn to get out of the fight-or-flight mode, here are some of my favorite methods, techniques and tools that are designed to help you first reduce your stress and strengthen your resilience to internal and external stressors in your life.

Box-breath
The box breath breathing technique is very effective at letting the body know it’s safe and can relax. While you may not necessarily feel that it is working, it is alerting the amygdala in your brain that no tigers are chasing you and it does not, in fact have to ramp up secretion of adrenaline and cortisol. In other words, your body can relax.

It will bring your heart rate down as well.

How to do the box breath:

Breathe in through your nose for a count of 4
Hold for a count of 4
Breathe out through your mouth for a count of 4
Hold on the out breath for a count of 4.

Repeat 4 times

2. Meditation apps:

Even a 10-minute meditation can help bring the body into a rest-and-digest phase of the nervous system. My favorite app is calm.com. I use it for meditations as well at bedtime to aid sleep. They even have an SOS meditation for panic attacks.

Another great app is Insight Timer. Very similar to calm.com but with even more variety and specificity in who the meditation is and under what circumstance.

Headspace is a good one for the beginner just learning how to meditate. What’s more, its narrated by a charming British male.

3. Sip green tea and miso soup.

Both these beverages have properties that help bring the PH balance within your body from acidic to alkaline, which helps get you into a parasympathetic response.