Fighting with your beau could cause an uptick in your emotional eating habits.

If you and your guy aren’t fans of the whole choosing your battles thing, your relationship woes could be doing a number on your waistline, according to a recent study published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science.

Researchers from Ohio State University and the University of Delaware found that getting into a spat effs with your bod’s ability to regulate your appetite: Fighting causes a surge in the hormone ghrelin, which is basically your hunger alarm. What’s worse, you’re also more likely to make poor food choices post-argument—and the results were consistent, regardless of gender.

Forty-three couples who’d been married for at least three years were recruited to participate in the study. They attended two nine-hour sessions, where they were asked to hang with their partner, eat a meal together, and try to resolve one or more conflicts in their relationship. They were also asked to answer questions and agree to blood tests and other pertinent data collection.

The sessions were videotaped, and researchers later analyzed footage for signs of conflicted communication, hostility, and an overall disconnect between spouses. Meanwhile, their hormone levels were tested at four different times: Once before the meal, and three times after it—at two, four, and seven hours after-the-fact.

The blood tests revealed hostile couples had significantly higher amounts of the appetite-triggering hormone after fighting—which doesn’t mean fighting is a direct cause of hunger pangs and poor eating habits, just that there’s a strong link, Lisa Jaremka, study author and assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at the University of Delaware, said in a statement.

The study broke new ground by exploring how an unhappy relationship can trigger emotional eating and make our comfort food cravings—which typically involve unhealthy eats—that much stronger. I mean, seriously: When was the last time you got into a blowout with your guy and turned to a bowl of steamed veggies for support?

While the study was small, hopefully it will encourage clinicians to ditch the one-size-fits-all diet and exercise mentality when helping patients reach their weight loss goals. “I hope this will help us start to tailor interventions,” Jeremka said. “These studies suggest people have difficulty controlling appetite and with specific types of foods… A personalized approach would be beneficial in the long run.”

How does your relationship impact your emotional eating habits?

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Emotional eating image via Shutterstock

The post The Fierce Link Between Unhealthy Relationships and Emotional Eating appeared first on EcoSalon.

New research reveals you’re more likely to develop healthier eating habits through reading positive health messages.

We see health messages and warnings everywhere: Magazine ads, commercials, not to mention articles (you know, like this one). They range from downright terrifying, like cigarette warnings that could easily inspire a horror movie, to bright and cheery, like Kelly Ripa telling you to brush with Colgate—and when it comes to improving your eating habits, you’re more likely to follow through when those messages are positive or gain-framed, say researchers.

A recent study from Cornell Food & Brand Lab analyzed 63 nutrition education studies to determine who is more likely to be impacted by positive versus negative health messages, and why. They found while evoking fear may seem like a good way to get your point across, the opposite is true: Telling the public a behavior will help them be healthier and happier is more effective than trying to scare them into healthier habits.

The majority of health messages today (in other words, the negative ones) impact health care professionals more than the general public—but why? According to Brian Wansink, Ph.D., Director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, there are a few reasons:

1. We aren’t as involved in the issue
When you’re super-knowledgeable about healthy eating habits – like say, you’re a nutritionist – you’ll be more motivated by a negative- or loss-based message. The general public may not have that deep-rooted passion for the cause like a professional does, and therefore may respond better to messages that provide clear, actionable steps that leave them feeling motivated.

2. We prefer a positive outcome (obvi)
Of course we prefer a positive outcome—who wants to spend their day waiting for an anvil to fall on their head? Why would we strive for a future at all if it wasn’t a better one? We’re not about burying our heads in the sand though: Researchers found when a positive outcome is a sure thing, gain-framed messages are best (such as “you’ll live 5 years longer if you exercise more”), but loss-framed messages work best when a negative outcome is certain (such as “sitting will kill you“).

3. We thrive on facts and certainty
“When claims appear factual and convincing, positive messages tend to work best,” Wansink said in a statement. “If a person believes that eating soy will extend their life by reducing their risk of heart disease, a positive message stating this is best.” If they’re not as convinced, that’s when a negative message (such as “people who don’t eat soy have a higher rate of heart disease”) will have more impact.

As someone who sucks at the whole healthy eating habits thing, I can honestly say I’m more pumped to eat a carrot when I’m told about the wonderful things carrots do for my body, as opposed to being told how not eating them will make my eyes fall out.

So when you’re in need of some added motivation to improve your eating habits or hop on that treadmill, seek out articles or clips on the positive impact these changes will have on your life and you’ll be more likely to stick to them. You don’t need to terrify yourself into doing anything: That’s what CNN is for.

How are you improving your eating habits?

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Image: Healthy eating photo via Shutterstock

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Most parents of finicky eaters have tried everything to get their picky tots to eat healthy foods. We’ve all heard by now of tried and true tricks like pureeing and sneaking fruits and vegetables into kid-friendly, recipes (i.e: disguising cauliflower in banana bread) à la Jessica Seinfeld’s book Deceptively Delicious. And as Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution is taking America by storm as I type this, the determined Brit is hoping to turn the tide on the childhood obesity epidemic by dismantling junk food culture one chicken nugget at a time. But a recent study is arming parents with new information on how to get their kids to eat healthily, and it’s all in the very simple presentation.

The new secret scattered across the cutting board? Make fruit ‘flashy’ and visually enticing to kids, and they’re more likely to eat up. This may seem like common sense, but in the hectic and harried pace of life today, how many of us really take the time to present food to our children in a fun manner? I’ll even admit, as the mother of an extraordinarily picky toddler, I could do much more in the way of giving her meals more pizazz. I think parents of finicky eaters (self included) get complacent on how and what they offer their kids at mealtime, rotating a few favorites day after bland day.

I am inspired by the simple message behind this study by Dutch researchers who “examined ways to boost fruit consumption in 94 children 4 to 7 years old.” Kids ate nearly twice as much of the fruit that was presented in a visually attractive way (sliced fruits skewered on flagged cocktail sticks and stuck into a watermelon) than the fruit doled out in a ho-hum manner, atop a white paper plate.

The researchers admit that parents would need to employ constant innovation to keep a child’s interest and palate piqued, because kids will eventually get bored with even a flashy presentation if it remains unchanged. But with statistics from the CDC which say that “only around 6 percent of adolescents aged 12 to 18 eat the recommended [daily] amount of fruit,” I think we should all be trying anything we can to up our childrens’ fruit (and veggie!) intake.

Have you converted a picky eater to a food-loving connoisseur? Please share your feeding tips in the comments below!

Image: Basheertome

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Did you know that global livestock production is responsible for more greenhouse gases than transportation? According to Mark Bittman, eating less meat could have a greater affect on the environment than reducing the mileage we put on our cars!

As the Food Revolution’s grumblings grow louder, more practical guides to eating are becoming available to help us make sense of all the food and health information we’re bombarded with. Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating is one such book, written by Mark Bittman – a food journalist, culinary aficionado, and cookbook writer, who is perhaps best known for his cookbook, How to Cook Everything, first published in 1998.

Focused on making sustainable, lifestyle change, Food Matters includes a practical guide to eating with specific meal plans and simple, daily recipes to follow. Additionally, the book discusses agriculture, food and American eating habits, the environmental impact of our eating culture and a brief history of how we got where we are today.

Written as a personal account and journey about changing his own eating habits, Bittman makes a compelling argument as to why the rest of us should follow his lead. After all, who wouldn’t want to lose weight, be healthier, save money and reduce global warming? Count me in!

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