why in moments of fatigue or anxiety we look for certain flavors and textures
Reaching the end of the work day, closing the computer and having very high anxiety levels are the ideal components for going to the kitchen almost automatically. And we are not looking for a healthy food like a salad or an apple, but the brain seems to be urgently asking for a pizza or a tub of ice cream. And it is not a question of gluttony, but it is pure and simple neurobiology. The evolution. Something we know quite well is that the human relationship with food completely transcends the mere caloric need for survival, but is one of the most important primitive tools. of emotional regulation. But it doesn’t always work in the sense of eating the more calories the better. And it is that, while the chronic stress and fatigue push us towards a carbohydrate binge, deeply negative emotions, such as extreme sadness or grief over losing someone, cause exactly the opposite: the hermetic closure of the stomach. Because? When we talk about stress eating, science is quite clear that this pattern does not seek to satisfy the “physiological hunger” that we all feel in order to survive and that appears gradually and is satisfied with almost anything. Here we talk specifically of an “emotional hunger” that appears suddenly and is satisfied with a very specific, and not at all healthy, food. The blame for this food kidnapping lies with to a large extentthe hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. This is a very important system that in a situation of acute stress, such as when a car is about to hit us, releases a large amount of adrenaline. In short, it is a system that prepares us to fight or flee, and logically suppresses appetite because in this moment of danger, the last thing the body ‘thinks about’ is digestion, but rather it ‘thinks’ about sending blood to our muscles so that they function at maximum performance. The problem It comes with the chronic stress that work, bills or studies can generate, where the body is constantly releasing cortisol. And this is fundamental, since as demonstrated the classic study According to researcher Elissa Epel, high levels of reactive cortisol alter satiety signals and send a message that warns that the body is in constant danger and needs store energy quickly in case it is necessary in the future. This is where we see that our overall system was developed at a time where food was not always availableand has not yet adapted to ‘modern life’ so as not to have these types of reactions. The carbohydrates. We’re not just looking for calories, we’re looking for neurochemical rescue. This is where the consumption of sugars and fats explosively activates the brain’s reward system, releasing a flood of dopamine which is a form of self-medication, since here food temporarily acts as a buffer from emotional discomfort. In addition, simple carbohydrates play a fundamental role in the synthesis of serotonin, the neurotransmitter associated with well-being and calm. In this way, when eating a plate of pasta or a sweet, we make it easier for tryptophan crosses into the brain and the result is a real, although ephemeral, calming effect that conditions our brain to repeat the action every time we feel very overwhelmed. The case of sadness. If stress pushes us to the refrigerator, acute pain and grief keep us away from it, since in the case of being sad it is quite common to have hardly any appetite, which is also one of the most classic symptoms of some types of depression. Something that we see as quite logical, but the reality is that we have seen that food is comforting; The obligatory question would be: why doesn’t it help with sadness? The reason. Grieving the loss of someone very dear to us establishes in the body a state of biological alarm that is different from the daily stress generated by work or studies. Deep sadness activates the sympathetic nervous system, keeping it in exhausting hypervigilance, and this is a problem. The problem is that digestion is managed by the parasympathetic system and the vagus nerve and in this state of sadness it is completely inhibited, because when the sympathetic system is activated, the parasympathetic is ‘turned off’. The most immediate consequence is that the gastric emptying slows down drasticallycausing nausea, a knotted feeling in the stomach, and a physical inability to swallow or digest solids. Priorities. In this way, the body in its maximum state of sadness prioritizes psychic survival and emotional processing of the trauma that has been experienced over routine metabolic maintenance. From here, the food simply loses its flavor, and the inability to feel pleasure blocks the release of dopamine that would normally give us an appetizing and caloric bite. A cultural question. Since the state of grief causes someone to be unable to eat properly or do everyday tasks such as cooking, all human cultures have developed eating rituals around grief and death. This translates into sharing food in these times of grief or at least making it available to anyone who needs it. But we have also seen how in some cultures food is shared after a funeral to reinforce the social fabric. Here food acts as a tangible reminder that life goes on and that the individual has not been isolated from the group. Images | Drazen Zigic in Magnific Robin Stickel In Xataka | Eating in front of a screen is not a modern mania: it is the new social ritual
