Emotional eating on the rise, biochemist tells ISC

Emotional eating among Indians, especially among urban population is on the rise, a biochemist told the 102nd Indian Science Congress here today.
Dr Jyoti Vora, Head Department of Biochemistry and Food Science and Quality Control at the Ruia College here was speaking at a symposium on the last day of the Congress, at Mumbai University's Kalina campus.
"Food means different things to different people. We are emotionally involved with food. We eat when we feel lonely, also when we wish to celebrate and even when we are bored. Food not only meets the basic physical need but also social, emotional and psychological needs," she said.

"Emotional eating is when you eat for reasons other than food. You are trying to satisfy your emotional requirements by eating," she said, adding that this type of eating was on the rise, specially among the urban populace.
"When we began our research, we found that students are affected by this, be it over eating due to depression, boredom, loneliness and frustration," she said.
"For example, if you don't eat what your friend has prepared, you feel bad and therefore you eat it," she said.

"We selected students from 18 to 30 year age group and observed that a lot of the population of this category suffers from micro nutrients deficiency," she said.

Vora blamed the tech savvy young generation's smartphone obsession to a lot of emotional eating.
"The smartphone is a very non-smart idea as far as eating is concerned. Because most of the time we find students are playing with phones while eating. What they are eating from their tiffins could be sawdust for all you know because they are not paying attention to what they are eating," she added.
Students said they tend to eat more when exams approach and still feel hungry, Vora said.