Translator: somaya hedya Reviewer: Dana Sarhan
Hello!
I am here today to speak about Emotional Eating.
Emotional Eating is when you get upset, bored or depressed,
like if you had an exam, or an interview and you didn’t do well.
When something upsets you, so you found yourself eating chocolate,
or ice cream.
The first thing to know about this behavior is that it’s very common,
but it’s not normal at all.
This is called Emotional Eating.
I absolutely hated my college .
We have lots of students with us today they may relate to what I’m saying.
I got into the Faculty Of Dentistry Ain Shams University,
and I didn’t like this field at all.
Being in a field that I hated put a lot of psychological pressure on me all the time.
What was the only thing that was consoling me for five years?
Chocolate!
Chocolate never left my coat’s pocket.
This was known about me, if anyone needed a chocolate they ’d come to me.
Whenever I heard a word or got a grade that is unpleasant,
chocolate was always there.
Then I decided to shift my career.
I quit dentistry, thank god,
and got into the fitness career, and it lead me to the nutrition field.
So, when I got in to the nutrition field I discovered something very important,
I found out that I’m not alone in this.
When we behave this way we always think that we are the only ones,
no one else is struggling with it, and no one feels the way I feel and so on.
When I got into nutrition, talked to people and started seeing cases,
I found this behavior to be widespread.
It might be the main reason for weight gain.
When I’m upset, I eat chocolate when I’m depressed I eat ice cream.
This behavior is Emotional Eating.
I started doing research on it.
I started reading about it, to find out why do we do it?
I found out there is a very scientific and obvious reason behind it.
When we eat chocolate or anything sugary in general,
we get this feeling of happiness as a result of something
produced in our brains called Endogenous Endorphins.
Endorphins are chemicals that makes us feel happy.
like Serotonin and Dopamine.
It’s a fact that when you eat chocolate or ice cream you feel happy.
It’s not an illusion. we do feel happy when we eat chocolate,
and it really reduces our non-desired emotions.
I’m frustrated, I’m annoyed, I’m bored It really helps with that, for real.
So you begin to say to yourself if something could make me happy,
and it is scientifically approved that it makes me happy.
why don’t you let me have it? what is the problem?
It will actually help with my non-desired emotions.
We know that pressure is a bad thing and it causes diseases,
and here I’ve something good that helps take the pressure off.
Why not have it? what is the big deal?
The problem is that this is an unhealthy coping mechanism.
It means that this is a completely unhealthy way to deal with emotions.
Wanting to replace an emotion or a difficult idea,
an unpleasant feeling or frustration.
The worst feeling that makes us turn to chocolate,
or any other bad things, to escape it, is loneliness.
That’s is the hardest feeling, feeling it is just you.
For example, I felt that I’m the only one who hated my college.
Everyone in my class likes dentistry but me.
loneliness makes us turn to the friend who is always there: sugar.
We think that this way of dealing with emotions will solve the problem.
When I eat chocolate I will no longer be upset or lonely.
The problem happens when we decide to turn off these emotions or ideas.
For me, the idea of leaving school or doing a career shift
was so scary and stressful to think about.
The idea got bigger not smaller at all.
It gets bigger and bigger till,
we don’t even have the choice to ignore it.
Do you know Dr. Jordan Peterson?
Dr. Jordan Peterson is a Canadian psychologist.
He is very famous, his YouTube channel is very popular.
He says when we postpone a conflict,
something hard and difficult in our lives and we should face it right away,
it doesn’t get smaller it gets multiplied.
Which means it will increase and worsen,
till I don’t have an option but to deal with it.
Whenever I feel upset, I eat chocolate. This idea has so many problems,
other than it’s a wrong way to deal with emotions.
I’m now a nutritionist.
Sugar is a poison, literally!
Name any chronic disease that comes to mind, anything at all,
sugar will either be its primary cause or one of it.
That’s a fact we now know.
We know that sugar is one of the causes of Insulin resistance and diabetes.
Sugar is one of the causes of heart disease and high blood pressure.
Sugar is one of the causes of polycystic ovary syndrome,
Which is a leading cause of infertility, that is very common now.
We see significant improvement in all of these conditions if they quit sugar.
The thing I consider my comforting friend when I’m lonely, sad, and frustrated
can cause me a chronic disease.
It’s now scientifically approved it is at least one of the causes.
Another problem with that behavior is it makes us used to Instant Pleasure.
Instant Pleasure is wanting to feel happy right now.
So, I resort to an action that brings me this happiness.
This behavior makes us impatient with what makes us happy on the long-term.
It makes us less tolerant and impatient with things,
like finishing school, succeeding, reaching a certain goal and so on.
You become impatient because you think happiness is supposed to come quickly,
I’m not supposed to wait five years to be happy.
Why work long on something when I can eat an ice-cream and be happy now?
Have you heard about the concept of Cheap Dopamine?
Dopamine is a substance our brain produces to make us feel happy.
Our brains naturally produce dopamine when we get close to achieving a goal,
not when achieving it!
It’s like when you’re climbing a mountain, and you’re close to reaching the top.
In that moment dopamine is produced.
When I feel I’m about to succeed or be one of the best students in my class.
looks like I’m going to do it. That’s when the dopamine kicks.
When we get used to cheap dopamine that comes from chocolate
and comes, by the way, from social media, scrolling gives us a dose of happiness.
The odds of me being patience
in pursuing my goals so my brain produces dopamine and I feel happy
are very low.
This is one of the most important reasons many of us don’t have
the persistence and determination, because we’re used to instant pleasure,
especially the generation of social media and sugar.
These two are very similar.
The reason we turn to social media is the same reason we turn to chocolate,
any they both work almost in the same way.
I quit sugar by the way, I did it without previous intent.
I don’t remember saying: “I’m going to quit sugar,” ever.
My work influenced me that what happened.
I work in nutrition and I do research all the time.
I’m always studying to help the people I work with
to get better in insulin resistance, diabetes, and such diseases.
Did you know that when you hear something so much
so that it actually influences your ideas,
this is called a Paradigm Shift, and it means a radical change in beliefs.
I’ve attended so many lectures on sugar,
heard and read so many studies and articles.
At some point, I felt like I can’t eat that thing anymore.
I can’t even put it in my mouth. That’s what happened with me.
Then I decided to quit sugar, and I did, thank god.
If you decide to quit sugar,
because you ’re convinced that it is not useful, it’s very harmful
and it’s a poison.
What should you do?
Carl Jung, a psychologist, and one of the founders of psychiatry.
Carl Jung says:
“you can’t change something until you accept it.”
I can’t change something until I accept it.
As a nutritionist, I see lots of cases.
The primary problem for most people changing their eating habits,
their refusal of seeing it as a problem in the first place,
they don’t see it as a bad behavior.
We convince ourselves that it is not that big of a deal.
That is the most expected reaction,
when someone attacks something you are attached to,
saying: it’s not that big of a deal.
That is what Freud called Denial.
Denial is convincing myself that the truth is not so horrific.
For example, when I post a video saying that sugar is poison,
People reply, that is an exaggeration, comparing it to poison!
I’m sure I won’t get diabetes because I eat a piece of chocolate.
No, it won’t turn to an addiction.
but it is. It is an addiction, it’s a poison and it is a big deal.
That’s the first step,
being convinced that it’s a big deal.
Then, I will start quitting sugar. but I will get withdrawal symptoms.
Sugar withdrawal symptoms is headache, distress and losing focus.
You will have hard time studying, if you are working on a project
you will find yourself drained out and impatient with people.
These are withdrawal symptoms.
Many people think withdrawal symptoms mean my body needs it.
Make sense, right?
My body needs it because when I quit it, I get a headache.
When I quit I become distressed, my body needs it. So I will have it.
These are withdrawal symptoms.
If it indicates anything, It’s definitely addiction.
If you’re not a sugar addicted, you take it once every two months
if you quit you won’t get withdrawal symptoms.
If I felt these symptoms, then that’s a sign of a addiction.
Another sign of addiction is getting cravings.
Wanting all the time to eat sugar or chocolate.
This, a long with withdrawal symptoms, indicates sugar addiction.
Do I’ve to quit sugar,
or can I handle it?
If the things I mentioned do really apply to you,
and you do have addiction symptoms and Emotional Eating.
You should quit sugar.
You know when we have a harmful person in our life, a toxic one,
he is doing things to us, influencing our lives in many ways
and I see this person every day,
If I decide I’m going to see him twice a week, how will I feel?
I won’t feel anything,
but when this person leaves my life, then I’ll feel so many things.
I’ll feel how much he hurt me,
I’ll feel light,
I’ll feel oh my god, I’m finally relieved.
That feeling of relive
after someone toxic leaves my life for good
not when just minimizing the relations but when he actually leaves my life.
This is exactly what happens with sugar.
I will never know how toxic sugar is,
and how much it affects every aspect of my life unless I quit it.
This is all I have. Thank you.
(applause)