Overeating is a disorder which not only affects physical health but causes a lot of stress at the mental and emotional level also. Some people tend to eat just because they feel bored or they have nothing to do! Others get into such undesirable habits to improve their physical appearance.

Emotional mood swings like anger, sadness, distress, disappointment or betrayal makes people eat a lot more than they realize. In certain cases, medications for other treatments cause hunger due to which people start eating a lot.

Overeating causes multiple damages to various parts of the body. Some of the negative effects of excessive compulsive intake of food are as follows:

• Weight gain and obesity: This is one the first symptoms of eating a lot more than what is required by the body. Excessive weight puts a lot of stress on the muscles as you need to carry the weight of your body. You tend to feel tired, lazy, irritated as well as experience muscular and joint pains.

• People who suddenly put on weight tend to lose their confidence on their appearance and worry excessively about their social image. This causes them to lose self confidence and self esteem. They try to deprive themselves of the food items they love and in turn increase the urge to eat more.

• Overeating causes emotional distress as excessive attachment to food items prevents emotional contentment or fulfilment after every meal. You tend to feel that there is still something missing in your meal. In the long run, you keep eating more and more to defeat this feeling of emptiness. When you end up getting depressed, you start eating more and more to defeat this negative emotion.

• Due to electrolyte imbalances and other metabolic malfunctioning reasons, you feel lonely, restless, bored and frustrated. Hence, simple tasks seem too overwhelming to achieve. The sight of food makes you more and more insecure about handling your craving.

• Overeating affects your relationship with friends, family, relatives and the social circle also. This is because the love for food replaces all other priorities.

• If you start eating a lot of high calorie, high fat junk, it leads to other health disorders and ailments and causes serious damage to the digestive system. Your body becomes prone to allergic reactions as you take in large quantities which your system may not be able to cope up with.

• You are prone to high cholesterol and high blood sugar due to excessive intake of food.

• Organ malfunctioning is another health risk due to overeating. Kidney, liver, stomach and other organs that take part in digestion and assimilation of food become highly prone to disorders.

• Oil levels in the body gets affected which may lead to skin related problems like acne.

• Acidity levels in the body increases and causes a serious condition called reflux.

• People who overeat tend to develop a bad mouth and body odour.

• Some foods items cause problems of concentration, focus and memory if consumed regularly in large amounts.

Hence, one should start making healthy lifestyle changes in order to cope up with this disorder.

Jason Ladock

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