Don’t rely on a food-fix

Food craving is not merely a response to hunger but a self-rewarding mechanism in times of stress, anxiety and boredom

Your comfort food may be driving you into depression.

Imagine a steaming hot plate of fragrant biryani, a deep dish, sinfully cheesy chicken tandoori pizza and a decadent chocolate fudge cake or warm custard on the side – did you just conk into nirvana imagining these? This is because food does more than satiating our hunger. It affects our mood and emotions, to the extent that highly delectable cuisines light up the same area of the brain that is active during drug addiction. This is also the reason why despite trying your very best, you are unable to resist food, making it difficult to shed those extra pounds.



Our craving for food is not merely a response to hunger but a self-rewarding mechanism activated in times of stress, anxiety and boredom. Food serves as a blanket of security as our brain releases hormones that help us ward off negative emotions, lulling us into peaceful state of mind.

Sneaky little dopamine

Have you ever felt guilty after munching away on a big bag of crisps because it was right there and you did not have anything better to do with your time? Perhaps, nursed Monday blues by downing a large Pepsi or shooed away heartache with a tub of Ben & Jerry’s? Or felt angry and irritated after raiding the fridge and the pantry, on a day home alone, and finding nothing good to binge on?

Well, say hello to dopamine, a hormone that helps control brain’s reward and pleasure centre. It does not just make us feel gratified but prompts us to take actions, eliciting the same response over and over again. This is why we listen to the same songs 50 million times, favour specific ice cream flavours, and most importantly lose inhibition at the sight of our favourite food. In fact, also why we stress eat when we are bored or angry because binging on our favourite food allows us to experience a wave of pleasure, a positive feeling triggered by dopamine coursing through our systems.



Moreover, release of hormones such serotonin and oxytocin – also dubbed as ‘the love hormone’ – and signaling of cannabinoid receptors (which are activated when people smoke marijuana) are also the reasons why we binge eat. This effect is more pronounced in consumption of caffeine and chocolate, explaining the latter as our guilty pleasure and our craving it with fervor or the grumpiness before our morning tea or coffee fix.

Moods and abnormal food intake

The narrative around food intake has moved from it merely being a source of nutrition. Burgeoning evidence now supports the notion that our food intake is also regulated by our states of mind and vice versa.

This also casts the obesity debate in a new light as link between food consumption and emotional disorders are also revealed. Repetitive activation of pleasure centres in brain resulting from food consumption override signals of satiety and hunger leading to overeating and obesity.



Behavioural studies suggest emotions impact food choice, food intake and cognitive control. Psychometric studies of obesity show obese people overeat because it wards off feelings of anxiety and discomfort. They are also less adept at perceiving their psychological state of satiety and hunger.

Studies also find stress can both increase and decrease food intake depending on the external stimuli because eating one’s favourite food in such times equates to pleasure and comfort. The same is seen in people suffering from anxiety and depression, as increased consumption of ‘comfort food’ serves to alleviating negative feelings. In the long run, however, it causes obesity and eating disorders.

Conversely, depression, stress and anxiety are common comorbidities of obesity resulting from poor self-esteem and a lack of restraint. Emotional eating is a vicious circle as negative states of mind prompt people to seek a pleasure-high by binging on their comfort food. This leads to obesity and weight gain, which promotes vulnerability to depression and anxiety again. Thus controlling obesity and staying healthy is not impacted by type and amount of food alone, rather it correlates with the state of mind as well.



Notably, this same behaviour is extendable in animals showing a common neurobiological pathway is at play. Study conducted using mice model indicated that switching to normal food after being fed high-fat diet for a long period of time led to development of anxiety-like behaviour in mice craving of sugar and fat rich diet.

So if you are bored, find a hobby. If stress is your trigger, take a bath to unwind and if you are depressed, talk to someone rather than seeking comfort in food. Hard to accept but food is not the answer to every problem!