Are Sad Children Trampled And Why?

Author: Maryam Ayres Time for reading: ~2 minutes Last Updated: August 08, 2022

In this article, learn more about Are Sad Children Trampled And Why?. Are we susceptible and why to emotional eating?.

Emotional eating is a term we have been using recently, but it is known as a phenomenon among many. When we are sad, we are much more likely to make poor food choices to eat, such as preferring a biscuit to a slice of cucumber. This was confirmed by researchers from the University of Texas and the University of Michigan.

Negative emotions such as sadness, anger, boredom, predispose the individual choice to eat an unhealthy burger in front of a bowl of fruit, the researchers added. Naturally, "negative emotional eating" is also associated with more health problems and depression, an older study has documented. Needless to say, overweight and depression are among the most common human conditions in industrialized countries, including Bulgaria.

The new study focuses on eating behaviors in children, whose overweight rate has been alarmingly high over the past decade or two, and who are also prone to emotional eating, as a misguided pattern observed by adults.

The researchers tracked the reactions of 91 children between the ages of 4 and 9, who had to choose a preferred food after watching an animated episode whose content evoked sadness, joy or was neutral.

Unsurprisingly, emotionally charged children reached for chocolates or crackers. Certainly, in the group of children who watched the sad video, more candy was eaten than the other two. Most crackers were eaten by children who watched a neutral episode, followed by the "cheerful" group and the least by the "sad" children.

What impressed the researchers was that the older children in the "sad" group ate far more chocolate than the younger children in the other groups.

This has its own explanation. According to them, young children much more precisely control their diet according to the needs of the body. When a small child is given a bowl of crackers, he is much more likely to reject it because he is not hungry or to eat only as much as he feels hungry, unlike older children who, regardless of their degree of hunger or satiety would eat up all the amount offered to them.

"Emotional eating" is not for us. Usually the nutrition of children up to a year and a half is more strictly observed by the parents according to the recommendations of the pediatricians and the guidelines for the appropriate amount, types of food, etc.

The age between 3 and 5 years turns out to be a critical period for the formation of a lasting food model. Then begins the socialization of children and the perception of patterns of behavior by others, loved ones. It is during this period that the child sees that we reach for chocolate when we are upset or for french fries for pleasure, to begin to imitate this behavior and to 7 to be acquired harmful eating habits.

Be a fan of conscious eating in front of the child. You are the best example of his nutrition, body care and health.

Are Sad Children Trampled And Why?

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