What is Overeating?
Overeating is a very common condition that occurs when someone eats more calories than the body utilizes for strength and energy. Overeating may lead to many other serious health problems such as obesity, high cholesterol, elevated blood pressure, and even a heart condition. So, keeping your food under a check is really important.
What are the Symptoms of Overeating?
The symptoms of overeating are many but there are some obvious symptoms:
Eating a larger than usual quantity of food over a short time is considered overeating. Sometimes you may feel that the way you are eating the food is going out of your control. Right after finishing your food, you start feeling awkwardly filled up. You also tend to eat faster than usual. You may start eating even when you are not even hungry. These all are the symptoms of overeating.
What are the Causes of Overeating?
There is no exact cause of overeating. However, there are some factors that may trigger overeating:
- Sometimes genetics plays a crucial role. Research suggests any type of eating disorder has a strong genetic element. It is seen that the person who overeats always has someone from the immediate family with the same disorder.
- Some psychological conditions may also trigger overeating. Some mental conditions such as depression, stress, anxiety, or even anger may trigger overeating.
When to see a Doctor?
Overeating is not a serious health condition and can be managed by making some lifestyle changes. So, medical intervention is not always necessary. However, overeating may lead to serious illnesses and if you have a constant urge to eat a larger quantity of food you should see a doctor, no matter if your weight is healthy.
Lifestyle Prevention of Overeating
Lifestyle prevention is probably the most important measure to avoid overeating. So there are some ways through which overeating can be prevented:
- The most important one is to maintain a food diary. This is a very useful way to prevent overeating. It will help you identify the food which is causing a false sense of hunger and which food is actually making you less hungry. This way you can change your eating pattern and choice of food.
- It is always better to eat quality food more frequently. This way it can assist you to feel fuller throughout the day and also help you control blood sugar spikes.
- Sleeping for longer hours (7 to 8 hours) is good for your health and also keeps you away from food which will eventually prevent overheating.
- As there are mental conditions that may cause overeating, meditation is helpful. This will allow your mind to calm down and as a result, you may lose the urge to eat a larger amount.
- Yoga may also be one of the ways to control your emotion and help you to prevent overeating due to emotional reasons.
- Drinking water before food helps you prevent overeating as it makes you feel fuller before you start eating. Also, try to drink water every time you feel hungry and wait for a few minutes. You may notice that your hunger has reduced.
Common Ayurvedic Remedies for Overeating
There are some Ayurvedic home remedies that can treat the causes of Overeating. Some of the herbs such as Brahmi, Guggulu, fennel seed, cardamom etc. are very effective in treating the major causes of overeating.
- Brahmi Milk: Whenever you are feeling hungry, try to drink a cup of Brahmi milk, it will surely suppress the hunger immediately. To make Brahmi milk, add a half teaspoon of brahmi in a cup of billing milk and drink it.
- Cardamom with Banana: If your hunger is caused by emotional or obsessive eating habits then try to eat a ripe banana chopped up with a pinch of cardamom powder. To enhance the taste add a little bit of ghee.
- Guggulu: Sometime the overeating may be caused by hyperthyroidism. Use kaishore guggulu which helps in controlling metabolism and soothes overactive thyroid.