Do you easily gain weight if you are under stress? Do you run to the fridge every time you are in a bad mood?
Food, especially desserts can help uplift our spirits, to make us feel good about ourselves and act as a stress buster. But it is a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips! Indulgence in food gives a brief period of sensory pleasure but tends to increase one’s body weight in the long term.
Looking at food as an escape mechanism is a common problem and its roots can be traced to the childhood habits inculcated by the parents. Let’s take an example – a child falls down in the playground and is crying loudly. As parents it is very hard to see their child in pain and the first thing we want to do is to calm him down. They try to give him a chocolate or a candy to stop the crying. And subconsciously, the child now associates a ‘treat’ with distressing and if this becomes a norm, it stays with him lifelong.
As parents we must first teach our children to understand their emotions, to control them or even express them, rather than just rushing to a ‘sweets’ as a distraction. It is absolutely fine for a child to cry loudly if he is hurt. There is NO SHAME in getting some stares or eyerolls from the passers by. What is of prime importance is our child’s feeling and him or her being able to manage them without running to food.
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