Have you ever had “one of those days” when life has run you down and you drive home after a long day of work and realise that you have not consumed a single morsel of food? I don’t know about you but I love to eat.
The enjoyment of a meal- from sourcing fresh ingredients to cooking up a storm and then winding down to a table set for me and my loved ones- is a personal favourite of mine. So then why is it that even I have had “one of those days”?
The downside of life is that it often throws a couple of curve balls our way which can leave us feeling run down. This can be anything from a fight with a colleague to a break-up which lands us in the dust with some confusing emotions ranging from anger to sadness.
At the end of it all, we’re just plain upset. And it’s when we’re upset that we, intentionally or not, forget to eat and even the thought of food is unappealing. But why is that?
The body and the brain work in close synchronisation in order to create and maintain the people we are which means: what affects the brain, affects the body and vice versa. Emotions rest in the delicate balance of the chemicals in our brains which fire up in response to everyday occurrences.
We become happy when we experience something pleasurable because the level of dopamine increases in our brains. This results in more energy and an “I can conquer all” attitude. When we are sad, however, the body becomes stressed and the body’s natural response to stress is to increase the level of adrenaline.
Sadness is a basic human emotion which has been around long before the modern era and our bodies respond to it in an instinctual way. Adrenaline fires up our “fight or flight” response and the body switches over to survival mode. It prioritizes important bodily functions and slows down the metabolism to conserve energy in order to deal with the stressful situation at hand.
Food is not a priority anymore; the priority is to get out of the stressful situation. This is why we forget to eat. This response tends to happen on a subconscious level because the body is no longer firing around signals to tell us that we need to eat our regular meals throughout the day.
So why is it that even when we remember to eat, we cannot stand the thought of it? Well, sadness fuels more sadness. It is very easy for people to get stuck in a vicious cycle of feeling upset and, anybody who has ever been there will know, it is a very difficult space to crawl out of. We tend to feed our sadness and lose pleasure in almost everything. The joyous experience of cooking a meal and enjoying it with friends and family turns into a dreaded task which requires far too much energy from this fatigued state – getting out of bed in the morning is enough to leave us exhausted when we are upset.
Our minds become consumed by intense emotions which results in the body being dragged into it all. It is no wonder that this has a direct effect on our appetite. Remember to eat the next time you feel sad or upset even if it is the last thing you feel like doing; tell your body that it is OK to eat in order to lower the level of stress on your body and your mind will follow suit.