Staying at home during the COVID-19 crisis can lead to unhealthy eating habits such as binge eating or overeating to seek relief from the stress, anxiety and boredom brought by the current pandemic. This boredom or stress-related eating habit is a natural reaction since some people find comfort in food, but always be reminded that frequent and excessive eating could lead to obesity and other non-communicable diseases.
People naturally eat for various reasons, and emotional state is among them. There is nothing wrong if you find food as one of the things that you can turn to during this stressful times since it is normal to indulge yourself with food to cope up with your emotions. However, keep in mind that during this time of pandemic, a good nutrition is a fundamental factor for your health particularly in times when the immune system might need to fight back. Binge eating of unhealthy foods such as processed, salty, fatty, fried and sugar-rich foods will place your body at risks of obesity and non-communicable diseases that may weaken your immune system.
There are 5 easy ways recommended by the Department of Science and Technology-Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI) that will help avoid overeating while staying at home. These recommendations were shared during the conduct of Webinar on Good Nutrition during the “New Normal” held on May 7, 2020:
1. Keep a food diary. A food diary is a record of what you consume each day. Keeping a food diary with you will help you keep in track of your eating habits and indicate tendencies of binge eating.
2. Avoid keeping tempting foods within your eyesight. Foods that are always within your line of vision such as chocolates, candies, chips or other snacks and unhealthy foods have a tendency to tempt you to eat more than your usual diet. Make sure to contain these foods in your pantries or food storage rooms that are less exposed to you to avoid overeating.
3. Maintain a healthy meal schedule. Do not let your normal eating schedule change just because you are staying at home. Eating inconsistently may affect your internal body clock and that disruption could lead to weight gain and other health risks.
4. Do not deprive your body of food. This is one of the most important nutrition rules that you need to follow to avoid overeating. Elevated hunger awareness can increase your desire to eat which can leave you feeling deprived and distracted by the food lack. Then once you do eat, going overboard is likely to happen leading to overeating.
5. Prepare home-cooked meals. Foods prepared outside the home are generally less healthy than home-cooked meals. Cooking your own meals at home will give you more opportunity in choosing healthy ingredients and recipes so that you will be more ensured that you are consuming nutrient dense foods.
During this quarantine, limited access to food may compromise your chances to continue eating a healthy and varied diet. It can also possibly lead to increase consumption of unhealthy foods that may bring harm to your body. However, with self-discipline and following the ways mentioned above, even you are at the comfort of your homes, you can still be able to continue eating a diet that supports good health.
NO I Angelica O. Pajulas
