KENNESAW, Ga. | Jan 13, 2025

What is it, and how can I safely keep it in my life?

Hello, Owls! Welcome to the Kennesaw State University Wellbeing@KSU Podcast, I'm one of your hosts, Natalia Gums. I'm a Peer Health Educator from the Health Promotion and Wellness Center. Today, we're discussing a topic that's often misunderstood and that's emotional eating. We're going to be going over what it is and how you can manage it safely in your life. 
 Joining us is our expert guest, Danielle Southern, one of KSU’s registered dietitians, also in the Health Promotion and Wellness office. Danielle, thank you for agreeing to join us on the podcast today to provide students and the KSU community with insights into how we can advocate for them openly and behind the scenes. 

00:00:36 Danielle Southern - Dietitian 
Yeah, of course. Thank you for having me today. 

00:00:37 Host - Natalia Gums 
Absolutely. Danielle, to go ahead and get us started. How do you define emotional eating and what distinguishes it from regular hunger or just eating out of habit, for example? 

00:00:47 Danielle Southern - Dietitian 
Yeah. So boiled down, emotional eating is kind of what it sounds like it's eating in response to how you're feeling or how you want to prevent feeling for certain emotions. It can encompass both positive emotions, like excitement, and also negative emotions like sadness or stress, and it's different from physical hunger because it's not usually motivated by that stomach growling feeling or like maybe you're feeling lightheaded or shaky.  

Rather it's not really automatic either. You're not really putting a whole lot of thought into it when it's automatic hunger. Emotional eating, they're usually very aware of what they're doing and either what they're feeling or trying to avoid feeling when they're emotionally eating. 

00:01:34 Host - Natalia Gums 
Absolutely. Thank you for that insight. As an RDN yourself, how can dietitians support clients who are trying to understand and manage their emotional eating patterns? 

00:01:44 Danielle Southern - Dietitian 
When I talk to people about it, there's usually a lot of stress or shame around it. And so first validating that emotional eating doesn't make you a bad person. We're told that we should only eat when we're hungry and not really any other instance. But that's not really realistic. We all end up in situations where we eat when we're not physically hungry. Like free food on campus. Free Costco samples. 
It's a thing, but also acknowledging that emotional eating can be one of many of the coping skills that we have. We just don't want it to be our only coping skill. We want to be aware of patterns with it. Are people consistently eating when they're feeling strong emotions. Is it getting to a point where there's guilt? Or feeling of loss of control or binge eating. At that point, it means that it's impacting your overall health and it's probably time to change those behavior patterns, and meeting with a non-diet dietitian or therapist can assist with that. 

00:02:44 Host - Natalia Gums 
Perfect definitely. For someone who might be in that situation or struggling with that, what are some practical tips for developing a more positive and conscious relationship with food for someone who is dealing with emotional eating? 

00:02:58 Danielle Southern - Dietitian 
Ditch the dieting. When we tell ourselves we can't eat a certain food, it makes it a lot more front of mind, and this can lead us into a feeling of scarcity mindset, giving that food more power. Whereas if we just allow ourselves to eat it, whether we are feeling positive or negative, we can have it as part of our life and then move on from that. Another thing is to evaluate your schedule. If you're burning the candle at both ends and not really giving time for yourself, then it becomes a lot easier to numb out on the couch with a certain food rather than evaluating what you are really hungry for or what your physical hunger queues are telling you. 

00:03:41 Host - Natalia Gums 
Definitely and on that first point, I know that that's something for me when I try to cut something out cold turkey, it doesn't work for me. But if I like gradually, I say maybe like a few times a week, I can maintain that. That really makes sense. What are some strategies or techniques for maintaining or managing emotional eating in a healthy and a balanced way? 

00:04:02 Danielle Southern - Dietitian 
Yeah. Assessing how are you feeling in the moment when you are doing that emotional eating? Is it something that is feeling enjoyable? Is it feeling like it's serving a purpose or is it again leading to that guilt that shame that those stressful feelings? And if it is, certain ways to kind of address that is through mindful eating. So whether that is engaging all of your senses while you're eating, or maybe it's taking a second and saying like, ‘what am I actually desiring right now,’ and that can kind of point you in the direction of, you know, what those emotions are telling you. 
And like I mentioned previously, if you are like really craving something, allow yourself to have it. Just having that permission. To eat something can take a big amount of that pressure off. Eat it, enjoy it, move on with your day. 

00:04:56 Host - Natalia Gums 
Definitely. Yeah. Thank you so much for your insights, Danielle. You've definitely given us a lot to think about. Let's say a student has questions or wanted to get involved in your office or maybe even get a job. How would they go about connecting with you or someone in your office? 

00:05:10 Danielle Southern - Dietitian 
Yeah. We have a lot of opportunities. We have nutrition volunteers that we're always looking for, like you said, we hire at certain points throughout the semester. Emailing us at wellctr@kennesaw.edu is the best course of action. 

00:05:27 Host - Natalia Gums 
OK. Perfect. Well, thank you so much, Danielle, that concludes our conversation for today and I'd like to thank Danielle Southern, a registered dietitian and in the Health Promotion and Wellness Office, again for joining me for such an insightful conversation about emotional eating, what it is and how we can manage it safely in our life. 

00:05:41 Danielle Southern - Dietitian 
Thank you. 

00:05:44 Host - Natalia Gums 
For those listening, please do not hesitate to reach out to Wellbeing@KSU for any of your support needs and to give suggestions on topics you'd like to learn or hear more about. If you're ever interested in learning more about how to build awareness, knowledge, and skills about mental health and suicide prevention, please register for one of our free mental health trainings. For more information, please visit the Wellbeing website kennesaw.edu/wellbeing. Or send an e-mail to wellctr@kennesaw.edu? 

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