Eating out of boredom, why does it happen to you?

The act of eating can be explained from various points of view. The one we know the most is usually the biological one, but there are also other explanations that we must attend to. Through this article we will show other perspectives to explain why we eat out of boredom.

It is a behavior that manifests itself in many people, but it is possible to change. It may or may not be necessary, what we must take into account is whether it is unhealthy, since excessive eating when it becomes a habit can become dangerous.

We will also delve into the tendency to eat out of boredom. In addition, we will emphasize what strategies we can use to avoid it and when it becomes unhealthy.

Eating out of boredom, what is it about?

We usually eat so that the body keeps up with its functioning. Although, as we are integral beings, there is an influence from other areas important to our well-being, for example, emotional and social. Therefore, we come to eat for pleasure, for social influence, etc.

Now, let’s look at the meaning of the two associated words. According to the Royal Academy of the Spanish language, eating means ‘eating food’, and boredom means ‘tiredness of mind caused by lack of stimulation or distraction or by repeated annoyance’.

So, Eating out of boredom means that we eat food when our spirit is tired. This has to do with the emotional realm; In fact, we talk about emotional hunger when we look in food for what we cannot resolve in other ways.

When is it unhealthy, why does it happen, and when is it healthy?

We eat out of boredom because Food is also associated with learning patterns. So, what pushes us to eat can be determined by various circumstances.

When we feel bored we enter a vicious circle in which our feelings, our thoughts and our behaviors intervene. So, Not knowing what to do overwhelms us and to break that cycle we look for something to entertain ourselves. In this case, the food.

Emotional eating and boredom

Furthermore, it may happen that, Not knowing what to do with our mind, let’s turn to the body as a defense mechanism to avoid our anguish. Thus, eating out of boredom is characterized by being urgent, having no limits, generating guilt and shame, or being a sudden behavior. Physiological hunger is gradual, can wait and does not usually generate negative emotions.

In fact, Current research emphasizes the relationship between overeating and emotions. For example, Córdoba and his colleagues, in their article published in the Psychology and Health Magazine, They show us how in their study people overeat when faced with negative emotions.

Emotional hunger and learning

Also We eat out of boredom because eating is a learned behavior. and we are conditioned to eat at certain times. Another reason may be because we unconsciously try to fill the empty spaces with food. Then, we begin to associate emotions with situations that we have already experienced and in which we turn to food.

So, every time it happens, we will think about food and eat if we have associated food with being bored. It becomes unhealthy when we do it excessively, that is, when we make it a habit.

On the other hand, there are times when we do not know how to react and we may eat out of boredom, especially in stressful situations. It may be part of an adaptive and natural process as long as it is circumstantial.

Strategies to avoid it

Eating out of boredom is an act that is not always done consciously, Identifying it is already a step that adds steps to our well-being. But how to avoid it? Let’s look at some strategies:

Change activity. Instead of eating when we feel bored, we can propose doing an activity that promotes our well-being and gets us out of boredom. For example, doing physical exercise raises our level of endorphins and helps us feel happy. For each person it will be different, let’s find the activity that is suitable for our lives.Record what we eat. It consists of tracking our daily meals, so we will know what we eat, when we eat it and the places where we usually eat it. From this self-exploration we could make decisions to end eating out of boredom.Avoid buying. If we know that what we usually eat out of boredom are certain foods, let’s avoid buying them so as not to have them within reach.Time. Let’s not let so much time pass between one meal and another.Satisfaction. If we eat foods that satisfy us, eating out of boredom will make it more difficult because we won’t have the space.Efficient routine management. Planning your daily life and respecting that planning will not leave room for boredom and, therefore, neither for emotional eating.Emotional management. It consists of recognizing our emotions, exploring them and not letting any of them take center stage. This is how we avoid emotional eating. This also requires self-knowledge and will.

However, To carry out this management we can seek help from expert professionals. For example, nutritionists, doctors and psychologists. The important thing is to look for strategies that make our lives healthy and non-toxic.

In short, eating out of boredom is an issue that occurs for different reasons. Sometimes to fill a void, others as a defense mechanism or learned behavior, others to break a vicious circle, others for the satisfaction generated due to the release of neurotransmitters, etc. It is crucial to identify whether it is excessive or not to take action and choose a path that promotes our well-being.

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