What is comfort eating and why do we do it?
The job of your subconscious mind is purely self-preservation. It has been designed to protect you from 2 things. Physical danger and emotional pain. To protect you from physical danger is simple. We call it "common sense". Don't run across the road with your eyes closed. Don't take something out of the oven with your bare hands. Things like that. Lessons we teach the subconscious that will run in the background of the mind in order to keep us alive in the future.
To protect you from emotional pain (boredom, stress, anger, frustration, depression, helplessness etc etc) is a little different. Remember, your subconscious mind is your servant and will do exactly what you have programmed it to do.
The issue is the overreacting. The instant gratification. The brain simply needs a new perspective to be able to change.
So. You're in the cot. You experience some form of emotional pain. You might hear a loud noise, or something startles and wakes you. You cry. Mum comes in and comforts you and gives you the boob or a warm bottle of formula. She sings a soft lullaby and the tryptophan in the milk makes you drowsy and you drift off. Emotional pain has found comfort through food.
You're playing sport. You fall over and graze your knee. It doesn't really hurt, but there's a bit of blood and despite your best efforts, some tears flow. You get home and Mum comforts you. She puts a Mickey Mouse bandaid on your graze, gives you a cuddle and because you've been so brave, she gives you a biscuit. Emotional pain has found comfort through food.
You're watching an episode of "Friends". Jennifer Aniston breaks up with a boyfriend. Next scene, it's 1 o'clock in the morning and she's in the kitchen eating a gallon of ice cream. Emotional pain has found comfort through food.
It's not the milk, the biscuit or the ice cream. It's what these foods trigger in the human body that brings the comfort.
Human beings are hard-wired to crave sugar, salt and fat. Our ancestors couldn't get it. The only sugar we had were berries. Salt was so rare and valuable that even in the 21st century it is used in some places as a currency. Fat? Well, if we got to a dead animal before the lions and vultures got to it, not only did we get some fat and protein into our diet, but so did our children and we didn't die of hunger!
When a human being eats any food high in sugar, salt or fat it triggers the production of a chemical called "Dopamine". Dopamine is a mood elevator. It makes you feel all warm and fuzzy. Everything is just right with the world.
So, the subconscious mind has now been very efficiently programmed to protect you from any emotional pain by getting you to eat foods containing sugar, salt and fat. It knows the chemical chain-reaction will comfort you. Add the fact that the large food corporations are now layering sugar, salt and fat into their products (Dr Karl writes a great article on this in his book " Brain Food") and we now have a societal dietary impact sweeping the Western world. It's called "obesity".
The brain can still find that "mood elevator" through other methods rather than chips and chocolate. Exercise produces serotonin, a member of the Dopamine family. Receiving a compliment on your slim appearance produces Dopamine. Liking what you see reflected in the mirror produces Dopamine, as does biting into a delicious piece of fruit, listening to your favourite music and making love.
So the secret to retraining the subconscious mind to reach for the pear, rather than the Pringles should always respect the fact that your subconscious mind has been working very efficiently to protect you from any instance it believed to be potentially or actually emotionally painful to you. The issue is the overreacting. The instant gratification. The brain simply needs a new perspective to be able to change.
That's where hypnosis can be very effective. In allowing the old out-of-date programming to be overwritten to a healthy choice instead, the process becomes easy and enjoyable. No sense of "missing out" of being "denied" but rather a simple healthy choice that produces the same chemical result in the brain.
The end result? When you get dressed to go to work, your pants are loose on you!