Emotional Eating in the Middle East

Joumana Daher
English 203
3/April/2022
Outline:
Thesis Statement: Emotional eating in middle east is caused by being exposed to mental illnesses
and facing new changes in the life style, and can be tackled through finding emotional solution to
your emotional problem, and starting a healthy lifestyle.
I- There exists a plethora of habits that lead to emotional eating, but the most notable are being

exposed to mental illnesses and facing new changes in the life style.

A- Stress is common between people in the middle east, it is one of the major causes of

emotional eating.

1- The article “Stress, shift duty, and eating behavior among nurses in Central Saudi

Arabia”, sheds the light on how people cope with stress by unhealthy eating by making

research on nurses in Saudi Arabia where their job position puts high pressure on them

leading to stress.

2- The article “Depression, Anxiety, and Severity of Obesity in Adolescents: Is Emotional

Eating the Link?” explains how depression and anxiety could serve as a
driver in the development of more severe forms of obesity due to emotional eating.

B- Facing new changes in the life style which could be one of the main sources of emotional
eating.

1- The article “Prevalence and Predictors of Emotional Eating among Healthy Young Saudi
Women during the COVID-19 Pandemic”, first explains what is emotional eating and
then employs the example of healthy Saudi women where they started facing emotional
eating during corona virus pandemic due to the stress and pressure they were under using
several methods and researches to support their topic.

II- A solution to cope with emotional eating is to find an emotional solution to your emotional
problem.
A- In the article “A Dietitian's No-Nonsense Guide to Fighting Emotional Eating”, provide
solution to cope with emotional eating.

1- Loneliness, you can text, call or video chat with a friend or loved one.
2- Sadness, make a list of things you're grateful for or laugh along with some comedy.
3- Boredom, finish a project, watch a movie or read a book.
 4- Anxiety, confide in a friend, spend time with your pet(s) or consider reaching out to a
counselor or therapist.

III- Starting a healthy lifestyle is one of the useful hacks to cope with emotional eating.
A-In the article “Emotional Eating and How to Stop It”, provide some useful solutions in
order to stop this problem.
1- Make daily exercise a priority.
2- Aim for 8 hours of sleep every night.
3- Make time for relaxation.
4- Connect with others.
 We don't always eat to relieve our bodily hunger. Many of us turn to food for pleasure,

stress alleviation, or self-reward. And when we do, we tend to grab for junk food, candies, and

other harmful yet comforting meals. When you're feeling low, you could grab for a pint of

dessert, order a meal if you're bored or lonely, or stop by the drive-through after a long day at

work. Emotional eating is when you eat to make yourself feel better in order to meet emotional

demands rather than physical ones. Unfortunately, emotional eating does not resolve emotional

issues. In fact, it frequently worsens your mood. Not only does the initial emotional issue persist,

but you also feel terrible for overeating as a result. Emotional eating in the middle east is

currently a crucial issue that many people face. On a personal level, I’ve always been aware of

keeping my weight steady on a number that satisfies my body shape, but after my weight have

remarkably increased I realized that it is due to emotional eating, and I was overwhelmed by the

sense of self-reproach, so I became interested in being more knowledgeable about the causes of

emotional eating and skimming for its solutions. Emotional eating in middle east is caused by

being exposed to mental illnesses and facing new changes in the life style, and can be tackled

through finding emotional solution to your emotional problem, and starting a healthy lifestyle.

There exists a plethora of habits that lead to emotional eating, but the most notable are

being exposed to mental illnesses, and facing new changes in the life style. Several mental

illnesses are spread out in the middle east. The author Ali Almajwal in his article “Stress, shift

duty, and eating behavior among nurses in Central Saudi Arabia.” Published in Saudi Medical

Journal 2016, sheds the light on how people cope with stress by unhealthy eating by making

research on nurses in Saudi Arabia where their job position puts high pressure on them leading to

stress. He mentioned that the studies that he has made has indicated that work-related stress leads

to an increase in the intake of foods rich in sugar, fat, and salt, as well as a reduction in the
consumption of fruits, vegetables, and fiber. Emotional eating under pressure was shown to

occur among those with poor coping skills, weak interceptive awareness, and high alexithymia,

and it was connected with a greater consumption of sweets and a lower intake of fruit and

vegetables. I was worried that this this article explains how stress leads to emotional eating

without using evidence to prove this point of view, but after reading the article I saw how author

uses studies and researches relying on statistics made him more credible and reliable which made

me trust his research thus using it as a source for my paper. Also, in the article “Depression,

Anxiety, and Severity of Obesity in Adolescents: Is Emotional Eating the Link?” published in

Clinical Pediatrics 2016, the writers Claudia K. Fox; et al explain how depression and anxiety

could serve as a driver in the development of more severe forms of obesity due to emotional

eating. They explained that the phrase "emotional eating" is derived from the Psychosomatic

Theory, which regards overeating as a coping technique for regulating and reducing negative

emotions." This behavior, however, is neither evolutionary advantageous nor physiologically

reasonable, given that a decrease in food intake, rather than an increase, is predicted in the

presence of stress. The stress-induced "flight or fight" response of the hypothalamic-pituitary-

adrenal axis, in particular, should reduce physiological hunger. Nonetheless, emotional eating

has been linked to anxiety and sadness in obese adolescents. In terms of anxiety, emotional

eating might be a technique to cope with hyper-arousal. In the case of depression, emotional

eating may be a means of generating more good mood. Their belief of this description of

emotional eating relies on between January 2012 and October 2013, cross-sectional study which

were obtained from teenage patients (ages 12 to 18 years) seeking obesity therapy at an academic

health center-based, multidisciplinary, pediatric weight management clinic. I was concerned that

this article would explain how mental illnesses cause emotional eating using no proof to support
this claim, but after reviewing it, I saw how the authors used research on their topic depending

on survey data to make them more truthful and efficient, which made me fully trust their study

and use it as a supplier for my paper.

Moreover, facing new changes in the life style could be one of the main sources of emotional

eating. In her article “Food for feelings: How stress and the pandemic are feeding into emotional

eating”, published in The national news Gemma White explains how the coronavirus pandemic

has been a trigger for emotional eating among many. She states that according to a recent

YouGov study of over 2,000 individuals commissioned by the British Nutrition Foundation,

which looked into how Covid-19 has influenced nutrition and exercise, 27% of participants

acknowledged to eating less healthily, and 48% did not feel "inspired" enough to eat properly.

"Boredom" was indicated as the primary cause for eating unhealthier meals by 63% of

respondents. After reading this article I related it to what was my situation during the

pandemic where during the look down all I could do to reduce my stress and fulfill my

boredom was eating and learning new recipes to try. Yet, After the emotional threat has gone,

there is frequently a sensation of regret and guilt when it is realized that too much food has

been consumed. This blame may also lead to additional emotional eating outbursts or low

self-esteem, creating a vicious spiral. In addition, repetitive emotional eating can result to a

slew of weight-related health issues. Diabetes, high blood pressure, lethargy, and high blood

pressure are all ways your body punishes you for emotional eating.

Hence, all the sources that I have recently used to discuss my problem are reliable, they

are trust worthy all the writers had relied on studies in order to make their discussions clearer

for their audience. I can tell that all the sources I have used in discussing the problem part of

my paper are fully refereed, all the writers are expert in this field of the problem except for
Gemma White where she is an editor in The National news, but she has some experience in

this field which helped her with her article. All writers were objective in their articles, and

when talking about scope of coverage, all of the sources treat my topic comprehensively they

provided me with enough details that I need in my conflict part of my research.