Eating Disorders: Unhealthy Eating Habits

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Worldwide more than one billion people are overweight and more than eight-million people suffer from eating disorders (Adriaanse, Ridder, Evers 1; Smith 9). Most people aren’t extremely fit. Everyone has some problem with food, to an extent. For most people the problems are under control, but this is not the case for everyone. Unhealthy relationships with food can have serious consequences.
Unhealthy eating habits can contribute to these consequences. One common unhealthy mannerism that many people don’t realize they have is the tendency to eat emotionally. If you don’t know what emotional eating is Adriaanse, Ridder, and Evers define it as “the tendency to over eat in response to negative emotions such as anxiety or irritability” (1). The reason many people can’t tell that they are emotional eaters is because when they’re upset they can’t tell their emotions apart from their hunger, and once they’re calm they can’t recall what they were feeling while upset, because of this it’s hard to connect emotional eating to food consumption (Adriaanse, Ridder, Evers 1-2). Most evidence about this eating habit is not only scarce but also subjective. When asking people if they emotionally eat some people might say that they emotionally eat often, but they might emotionally eat less than someone who said they rarely do (Adriaanse, Ridder, Evers 14.) Research on this is so subjective it’s hard to cater to a group of emotional eaters. If someone has a problem with eating emotionally the best thing for them is probably to learn to recognize the difference between hunger and emotion. Once they can differentiate between the two they will have a better chance of keeping the habit under control. Although emotional eating is a bad habit, there are s...

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...heir best to live a healthy lifestyle.

Works Cited

Farrow, Claire V., and Claire L. Fox. "Gender Differences In The Relationships Between Bullying At School And Unhealthy Eating And Shape-Related Attitudes And Behaviors." British Journal Of Educational Psychology 81.3 (2011): 409-420. ERIC. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
Adriaanse, Marieke A., Denise T. D. de Ridder, and Catharine Evers. "Emotional Eating: Eating When Emotional Or Emotional About Eating?" Psychology & Health 26.1 (2011): 23-39. Consumer Health Complete - EBSCOhost. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
Smith, Erica. Anorexia Nervosa: When Food Is the Enemy. New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 1999. Print.
Claude-Pierre, Peggy. The Secret Language of Eating Disorders. New York: Random House, 1997. Print.
Gulati, Richa. "Sweet Nothings: Sugar Addiction." Teen Vogue. Teen Vogue, 2 January 2014. Web. 16 Apr 2014. .

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