Tips on Eating Healthy Offshore
Research published in the Psychological Science sheds new light on the notion of “stress eating.” According to previous studies, 43% of North Americans eat unhealthily under pressure while 36% reject food altogether. The new findings suggest that emotional eaters are not always prone to weight gain, despite what nutritionists have believed for many years.
Using 251 volunteers, researchers put the subjects through a two-part test. Firstly, they made these individuals interact with an unknown partner via video, later to tell them that (a) the partner no longer wished to meet with them in-person, (b) the partner looked forward to meeting with them even more, or (c) the experiment was over.
Measuring the intake of ice cream in the next seemingly unrelated study, those individuals rejected were associated with over-eating. When faced with positive feedback, however, skimpy stress eaters ate more than those who typically indulge in negative environments. What this means is that normal- and stress-eating habits are completely contradictory. For this reason, stress eating may be periodically dangerous.
Emotional eating is primarily a bad thing. Eating healthy offshore requires balance and regularity in order to sustain an active lifestyle on ships, rigs, and platforms. The right food options may be there to select from, but unless your emotions are in-check, the benefits will go unnoticed. Identifying and preventing emotional eating, however, takes effort. Paying attention to the signs of such habits is encouraged in seafarers, as being away from home may in fact induce stress. So let’s look at the common causes and symptoms of emotional eating.
Eating healthy offshore requires an ability to differentiate between emotional and physical hunger. While physical hunger comes gradually, emotional hunger is often set-off by cravings for unhealthy things. This, if unregulated, leads to mindless eating that does not stop when you’re full. Physical hunger, however, leaves you feeling satisfied after a healthy meal at sea. This is because the food targets the problem directly, unlike emotional eating which is a mental state.
As mentioned above, stress is one of the biggest causes of this problem. Coming in second and third place, boredom and depression. Eating healthy offshore means staying mentally healthy as well, so if you are experiencing these feelings, look to express them rather than fill them with food. Emotional eating often leaves the individual feeling worse in the end anyway. On the other hand, sometimes these eating habits have been developed in childhood and it’s just a matter of correcting them.
Although the new research opens many nutritionists’ minds to the correlations between stress and eating, it’s still important to try to not alter eating habits based on emotion. Regulated healthy eating is crucial to living a strong, full life. So remember, eating healthy offshore starts with getting your mind in shape, then the rest will fall into place.
