Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, emphasizing that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between emotional hunger and obesity, said, “They eat due to psychological reasons, not physiological ones. Since there is no need, it immediately turns into weight in the body. They often eat high-energy foods, which also leads to obesity.”
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan: “There is a very close relationship between emotional fluctuations and eating behavior. Individuals can control their eating behavior by observing themselves. Self-observation is very important here.”
Founding Rector of Üsküdar University, Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, evaluated the issue of emotional hunger.
“They eat due to psychological reasons, not physiological ones”
Prof. Dr. Tarhan, pointing to the issue of emotional hunger and obesity, said, “There is a cause-and-effect relationship between emotional hunger and obesity. Even though a person's body does not need to eat, the person constantly wants to eat. The foods these individuals eat for positive emotions are different from the foods they eat for negative emotions. In such a situation, they eat due to psychological reasons, not physiological ones. Since there is no need, it immediately turns into weight in the body. They often eat high-energy foods, which also leads to obesity.”
One out of two people with depression is obese!
Prof. Dr. Tarhan, pointing out that the relationship between obesity and depression is almost fifty-fifty, stated that 55% of individuals with depression are obese.
Prof. Dr. Tarhan, drawing attention to the causal relationship, said, “There is a causal relationship between depression and obesity. A separate definition has been made for emotional hunger. The feeling of emotional hunger and insatiability currently appear not as a completely separate disease, but as a global problem that causes disease, arises as a result of lifestyle changes, and is brought about by modern life... The person eats again and again. They lose the feeling of satiety.”
When a pregnant woman eats chocolate, fetal movement increases
Tarhan stated that when a pregnant woman is given chocolate, fetal movement increases, and said, “When the mother eats chocolate, chemicals related to happiness are immediately secreted in the brain. That blood circulates in the body within thirty to forty seconds. When the brain pours out that serotonin, it immediately passes into the child's blood. The child experiences pleasure as if they had eaten it themselves, and their activity increases. Thus, the mother's brain communicates with the child chemically. Emotional hunger works this way too, meaning the child feels as if they have eaten something even though they haven't at that moment.”
The brain constantly produces the message ‘you are hungry, eat something’
Prof. Dr. Tarhan noted that during fasting, the brain is programmed with faith, so the feeling of hunger is not experienced until a certain hour, and explained, “The brain secretes chemicals related to hunger and satiety. It says you will eat in the evening, and since hunger chemicals are not secreted, there is no desire to eat. The brains of individuals experiencing emotional hunger constantly produce the message, ‘you are hungry, eat something.’ They feel hungry themselves. They eat, but the brain gives a false alarm.”
“A person tries to eat something immediately when angry”
Regarding how emotional hunger can be distinguished from normal hunger, Tarhan said the following:
“A person can understand it this way; if they try to eat something immediately when they get angry, when they are upset, when they feel negative, or sometimes even when they feel positive, when they feel good, and if this eating is more in the form of snacking, then it is emotional eating. There is a very close relationship between emotional fluctuations and eating behavior. Individuals can control their eating behavior by observing themselves. Self-observation is very important here,” he said.
“These individuals want to get up and go to the kitchen immediately when they feel down about something”
Prof. Dr. Tarhan noted that when a person feels down about something, they immediately want to get up and go to the kitchen, saying, “I just ate, my body doesn't need to eat this again right now, but my brain uses eating as a relaxation technique,” and gave an example: “It's also closely related to cultural learning. A businessman from Gaziantep, in his 50s, came to me. He was depressed. He went to an internal medicine specialist, who told him, ‘You shouldn't eat these and those.’ After that, the person fell into depression. He said, ‘I worked all these years, thinking I would eat comfortably, and now if I can't eat what I want, why should I live?’ He saw eating as a purpose in life. The meaning he assigned to food was very different. When the meaning he assigned to food was like this, he said, ‘If I don't eat, life has no meaning.’”
“If you have a purpose in life, food is only to meet basic needs”
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan said, “If one lives to eat, this is what happens. But if you have a purpose in life, food is only to meet basic needs. If you place eating at the purpose of life, at the center of life, then eating becomes an emotional investment area. Long dinner tables, conversations, culturally we love food.”
Sweets like ice cream and cake are consumed more during negative emotions
Prof. Dr. Tarhan, emphasizing the importance of complete well-being in physical, mental, and social aspects, explained, “It is not enough for individuals to be only physically well; they also need to be in a state of mental and social well-being. For example, some people experience binge-eating attacks, eat, and then provoke vomiting with their finger. What we call anorexia bulimia now, this type of binge eating, occurs in a pleasure-oriented life philosophy. A person can live very happily even when eating little. The purpose of human existence is not to constantly eat... If we make being happy by eating a life philosophy, it is observed that in negative emotions, more sweets like ice cream and cake are consumed, and in positive emotions, things like pizza, steak, and casseroles are eaten.”
“The child learns everything from the environment…”
Tarhan stated that children can distinguish between good and bad from the age of 15, and said, “The child learns everything from the environment... There are children lost in the forest; they act like whatever animal they grew up with. Children also take eating as an example from their parents. If there is constant talk at home about ‘What will be eaten tonight?’, if food recipes are always discussed, or if the child is constantly chased with a plate in hand regarding eating, if it has become a form of communication between the child and the mother, then that child later turns emotional eating into a form of communication and has a high probability of becoming obese. Or a high probability of developing anorexia. An eating disorder emerges.”
There are studies that also consider eating as a type of addiction
Prof. Dr. Tarhan stated that there are studies considering eating as a type of addiction due to a disrupted reward system in the brain, and said, “During eating, dopamine is excessively secreted in the brain. Dopamine is a brain chemical that gives an intense feeling of euphoria. It provides extreme pleasure. The person constantly eats to trigger its secretion. If a person has made pleasure the center of their life, they say, ‘I'd rather die full at a young age than live hungry.’ The home culture in childhood affects the child. If the eating culture at home is like this, if there is a family culture that lives as if eating is the purpose of life, if the thought process is ‘We only live once, why shouldn't we eat,’ then the child is shaped accordingly.”
Tarhan said, “Children also feel the need to eat to be happy,” and added, “Controlling appetite is actually a kind of controlling one's eating impulse, like controlling one's life. There is a child with a cola addiction. He drinks 2 liters a day.”
A healthy person also needs to learn how to eat
Tarhan stated that modern life today represents a kind of cultural imperialism in the style of ‘Live the moment, be happy, forget others, life is yours, do whatever you want, break the chains, tear down the walls,’ and concluded his words by saying, “It affects the whole world globally. It is intentionally done as a consumption economy. Currently, obesity and emotional eating have increased to speed up the consumption wheels, to accelerate the earn-consume cycle, so that more people pay taxes and more people buy. A healthy person needs to learn to control their psychological impulses and desires, just like learning to drive a car – where to use it, where to accelerate – they also need to learn how to eat. This also needs to be taught to children.”