Have you ever experienced anxiety and panic symptoms immediately after having a meal, feeling guilty, weird, and feeling under immense stress? You may experience a feeling like something bad is coming your way or even you are dying. These all are symptoms of anxiety and anxiety itself doesn’t have a warning sign. It just starts within seconds even if you are calm and steady.
The moment you get triggered by even the slightest thing, the anxiety kicks in. Food is an unavoidable trigger that can make you feel unwell for quite a few hours.
If a person has been living with anxiety and panic attacks, he might be able to know what triggers him the most. What anxiety feels like is a heavy burden on your heart, struggling to breathe, sweaty palms and face, shakiness, dizziness, light headedness, and difficulty breathing.
These symptoms appear after having food is known as eating anxiety. It can also be linked with some type of eating disorder or can be due to body mechanism that reacts in a certain way to a specific food.
It is common for people suffering from anxiety to report being anxious after having a meal but this needs to be managed by healthy diet.
A healthy diet is comprised of all food groups which will nourish you in best possible way by providing all the essential nutrients. Despite eating healthy, you may end up with anxious feeling. This can be due to multiple reasons like:
Reasons of ANXIETY AFTER EATING
1. GERD (gastrointestinal reflux disease)
This is the back flow of the acidic contents of stomach comprising of the chewed food and he acid that mixes with food in stomach. When the acidic contents flow back due to inefficiency of the stomach valve, which becomes weak and lets the contents flow back, it causes acidity, chest pain, shortness of breath which triggers the anxiety.
If someone is already facing anxiety, he/she will perceive it as trigger and his anxiety will kick in. Anxiety and GERD are interlinked to each other, sometimes anxiety leads to GERD and the other time GERD causes anxiety. So to avoid this, you need to eat less acidic foods and soothe your stomach and GIT tract for a better quality of life.
2. Past trauma
It plays a vital role in determining the major cause behind food causing anxiety. You may have a bad or stressful experience related to a particular food. It can be food stuck in your throat, the food you had while suffering from other diseases, food that caused diarrhea vomiting, or can be anything.
Any past trauma involving the slightest evidence can trigger your anxiety. The thought of eating that food can cause you stress symptoms.
3. Eating disorders
If you are suffering from eating disorders like bulimia nervosa or anorexia nervosa, then you may face anxiety after having a meal. In eating disorders, a person misperceives the amount of food they take.
Taking a normal meal serving at a time is perceived as too much food. It triggers their brain and the brain releases fight and-flight hormones that cause the body to feel at unrest. They seem to panic after having a meal and they have a poor image of them.
They think that now that they have taken in a huge amount of food, they will try to eliminate it through self-induced vomiting or purging. All these symptoms are related to eating disorders, which require a professional counseling session in which they are assured that they are not eating too much, rather they are eating the amount of food that is needed for normal growth and functioning of body.
Furthermore, certain nutritional strategies can help like, replacing big meals with some meal replacement shakes or something light also helps because you have a perception that shakes and snacks do not burden your body.
4. Eating too much sodium
Eating high sodium foods can lead to activation of the nervous system in which it sends signals to body to activate fight or flight response.
In this situation the digestion stops, heart rate increases, pulse goes high and person senses everything as danger and remains alert. This response can be avoided by limiting high-sodium foods like added salt, canned and processed foods.
5. Conscious eating
Some people are prone to eating their pleasure foods but feel bad afterwards. When they see food, they cannot resist, and consume sugary and fried foods but deep down they know that these foods are unhealthy and will lead to weight gain.
The guilt inside you will cause anxiety symptoms and will make you feel bad about yourself. You will face low self-confidence and self-esteem.
You make bad perceptions about yourself, and you underestimate yourself that you will never be able to eat healthy. These symptoms can be managed by mental health counseling and nutritional counseling.
6. Food allergies
Food allergies and intolerance play major roles in mental health. For example, gluten allergy or wheat allergy directly affects your brain and mental health. This is due to the fact gut is known as your second brain, so eating foods that trigger your gut lining will lead to secretion of abnormal hormones from brain leading to distress.
The symptoms of food allergies may vary from physical to psychological to emotional. The person must understand that anything you eat will have a direct influence on his actions, so limiting foods that cause anxiety needs to be eliminated from diet.
7. Reactive hypoglycemia
Lastly, we will discuss hypoglycemia you may face after eating high glycemic index foods. This response works such that when you eat food which is high in sugar and simple carbs like juices, bakery products and sweets, they will spike your insulin levels.
In response to that body will try to lower it, so the speed with which it rises, it drops back down, which causes the symptoms like light-headedness and dizziness and urge to sleep.
MANAGEMENT OF EATING ANXIETY
- It can be managed by limiting self-negative talks. Talk positive about yourself. Set positive affirmations. Set rewards for yourself even on smaller wins like avoiding junk. This will help a lot.
- Stop stressing about what you just ate. Stress leads to even more disturbed hormones and abnormal behaviors which worsens the condition.
- It needs to be managed by mindfulness techniques. A research study was done which showed marked improvement in eating anxiety after practicing mindfulness. Mindful eating benefits you in every possible way. It creates a sense of contentment and satisfaction when you eat in portion control and eat a healthy diet. It improves your mood, relaxes your brain and improves anxiety.
- Cognitive behavioral therapy also significantly reduces the incidence of anxiety after eating. Distress tolerance training and controlling anger after eating unhealthy foods lead to improved mental health. It improves self-control.
- Nutrition is a multi-disciplinary field which not only covers what to eat, but also when to eat, how much quantity, what affect it will have on your mind and how to practice mindfulness. In several patients, nutrition also plays with their minds, when the mind is satisfied and relaxed, the food will have greater affect. And when you are not confident enough, the food or even dieting will not have its impact.
FOODS TO EAT AND AVOID TO SATISFY YOUR MENTAL HEALTH
The foods that have a positive impact on your mind and lifts up your mood are:
- Rich in complex carbohydrates like whole grains, beans lentils, rice, brown rice and fruits with skin.
- Plenty of fluids and electrolytes.
- Protein rich diet includes beans, chicken, egg, meat, and soy products because they act as precursor molecules for production of serotonin which is A HAPPY HORMONE.
- Antioxidant and phytochemical-rich diet would do wonders believe me. They have anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and anti-stress activities which soothes your mind and body. fruits like berries, citrus, and pineapple have tons of benefits for your mental health as well as physical health.
The foods to avoid include:
- Refines cereals
- Sugary foods and beverages
- Excessive sodium or salt
- Processed eats
- Pastries and bakery items
- High fat foods
CONCLUSION
So proper management of eating anxiety through nutritional counseling, behavioral therapy, correcting the eating pattern and practicing mindfulness is the key. Furthermore, avoiding the trigger foods is necessary to lead a anxiety and panic free life and even if you have eaten some food that triggers you, stop feeling guilty and move on.
