#02 The Emotional Eater

You’re compelled to eat by a host of factors that have relatively little to do with food. The brakes might fail because you had a bad day at work, or because you had a row with your partner, or because an ill-informed social media post got your hackles up, or even for a reason you cannot immediately pinpoint. ‘Some of us can handle our emotions most of the time, and then a certain negative event occurs and we go off,’ says Tim Church, professor of preventative medicine at Pennington. ‘We turn to drinking, smoking, eating or a combination.’ Alcohol reduces your impulse control – so reaching for the sancerre at the end of a tough day can have cumulative negative effects on your waistline.

The prescription

‘Know your emotional triggers,’ says Church. If they’re not immediately obvious, he advises the following: ‘The next time you go on a bender and eat a family-sized box of chicken nuggets, sit down afterwards and write down what’s distressing you, as specifically as possible. Unpeel the onion.’

John Oldham lost 105kg on the programme designed by Church. By examining his emotional triggers, he concluded that his difficult relationship with his ex-wife was behind much of his compulsive eating. ‘So, I learned to stop giving her the control,’ he says. Talking therapies can help you become aware of the root cause, making your behaviour feel like less of a foregone conclusion.

You can also train yourself to put time between the distressing event and your reaction to it. ‘When you’re heading for the fridge, ask yourself: “can I wait 10 minutes before I do this?”’ says Church. Then, find something to do that activates those same reward pathways, but doesn’t involve food. Exercise is the obvious choice, but even listening to a favourite album releases dopamine, the brain’s pleasure chemical.