One Day at a Time
How to Manage Stress Eating — or Not Eating at All — in Uncertain Times
Daily insights on life in the face of uncertainty, by psychiatrist and habit change specialist Dr. Jud Brewer
This story is part of How to Eat in the New Normal, a weeklong series about how the Covid-19 pandemic is changing the way we eat, with expert advice for making food choices that help you stay healthy and happy.
Emotions are running high these days, and that can lead to all sorts of negative habits, especially around food. Are you eating more than usual? Or maybe you’re so worried that you’re forgetting to eat? Stress impacts our appetite in major ways, but there is a simple approach you can adopt to identify and change these behaviors so you can stay healthy and feel less anxious while living through these uncertain times.
When it comes to food, anxiety can impact many of us in one of two ways: We don’t eat or we eat too much. Not eating often falls into two categories: not eating because we’ve lost our appetite due to stress and worry, or simply forgetting to eat because we’re too busy juggling everything else.
Losing our appetite is actually an adaptive survival mechanism. Our ancient ancestors who were out on…
