Our emotional state has a significant impact on our eating habits
Australia’s National Science Service analyzes that mood significantly affects our eating habits.
A CSIRO survey of nearly 2,000 Australians found that 76% eat more when they’re bored and 55% in a bad mood.
Positive emotions had the opposite effect, with 46% of participants reporting that they ate less when they were happy.
According to the results, gender also plays a role, with 24% of women saying they eat to feel better, compared to 16% of men.
Almost all participants reported being drawn to large amounts of potentially unhealthy foods, with 1/3 admitting that eating tempting foods was something they automatically did.
Chocolate was the food that emerged as the biggest temptation, with 72% of participants saying it was the thing that tempted them the most when trying to adopt healthy eating habits. After chocolate, cheese took second place with 61 percent, and pastry products took third place with 52 percent.
Men were also more likely to go for beer or processed meat, while women wanted pretzels, cakes and muffins.
According to researcher Naomi Kakoschke, who led the analysis, the evidence shows that adopting healthy eating habits requires “more than good will.”
“You need support to make small, incremental changes that can be sustained over the long term,” Ms Kakoschke said.
“It’s about understanding not just what we eat, but why we eat it and how to make meaningful changes that will be sustainable,” she said.
The analysis is not meant to say people can’t eat foods like chocolate, he said, but to highlight what can influence a person’s eating habits, such as the time of day, where a person is, and a person’s emotional state. , this is a really critical factor.
“It can have a huge impact not just on what we eat, but how much we eat,” he said.