United States: The upcoming presidential election might make some people snack more, and not always in a healthy way. When times are stressful, like during elections or sports events, many people are already turning to emotional eating, which means they eat to cope with their feelings.
Recent research shows that emotional eating can lead to weight gain, making it an important issue to think about. It’s good to be aware of how stress can affect our eating habits!
As reported by Fox News, the research identifies the correlation between emotional eating behavior and obesity, depression, anxiety, and stress.
Thus, the researchers stated that, it might be possible to identify less dangerous ways of handling with negative feelings.
If the pandemic has led to increased stress, then it should come as no surprise that Los Angeles-based registered dietitian nutritionist Ilana Muhlstein of Fox News Digital has noticed her clients indulging more in emotional eating.

Ultraprocessed foods now make up 60% of the total American diet, which groups are most affected.
With more than 15 years of experience working for private clients, Muhlstein said there’s “always a spike in activity” before and after the event.
“People are watching the debates and watching the commentary on the couch, munching on chips or cookies as it is a sort of destructive behaviour,” she said.
In some ways, this [increased snacking] was especially true during “nail-biting sports games,” as it helped people to “manage” their anxiety by eating to feel in control of the situation, Muhlstein said.
‘When we have these periods of unrest where is a situation of not knowing … that sense of limbo that can feel uneasy, people tend to confuse it with hunger,’ she pointed out.
Emotional eating and weight loss
For her part, Muhlstein, who is a nutritionist, said that emotional eating stands out as one of the most significant issues that she has come across with her clients who have weight issues.
Based on this, she said that apart from getting to grips with the emotional eating it is very difficult to shed the excess weight let alone avoid regaining it.

Says Muhlstein, emotional eating is far more developed in American culture than in any other country as many food producers have flooded us with the message ‘food will make you feel better’.
Eating unhealthy foods and sweets especially during happy events such as birthdays and any other celebrations does no harm as compared to when one is compelled to eat in order to go through a negative event.
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