A brief consolation from the fridge

According to a survey of people in England carried out on behalf of the eating disorder awareness charity BEAT, as many as 95% of people feel that diets do not produce the desired results. 85% of those surveyed fail to lose weight, succumbing to uncontrollable binge eating because they have an emotional attachment to food. 85% of people overeat to console themselves without dealing with their negative body image.

So-called "emotional eaters" use food to calm down and relax, as well as when they feel angry, lonely or unhappy, because eating temporarily switches off negative emotions.

The main emotional states that lead people to seek comfort from eating are anger, resentment, loneliness, betrayal, frustration, jealousy, guilt, hostility, shame, helplessness, powerlessness, stress and fatigue. These are joined by a host of other deep hidden, insidious patterns of emotion, the link to uncontrolled eating not always obvious. While eating can provide a momentary escape from a disturbing state, it does not heal negative emotions, but exacerbates them.

A study on emotional eating by BEAT found that a third of women secretly snack, later experiencing shame, guilt and hopelessness in taking conscious control of their eating behaviour. All of these negative feelings create an unrelenting vicious cycle that keeps patterns of overeating in place, even if you have managed to control your eating for some time with strong willpower.

Your eating habits in adulthood are influenced not only by the food you eat as a child and the amount you eat, but also by your parents' attitudes towards food. When working with clients, eating disorder therapists are often confronted with beliefs such as "I can't eat what other people eat" and "I can't have the good food or sweets I want". These beliefs may have been deeply ingrained in your subconscious from a very early age, when you were rarely given sweets, punished by being deprived of sweets, or from a poor family who could not always afford the food you wanted. This means that if you weren't allowed to eat what you wanted, and had no say over your food choices, you naturally developed an acute appetite for the food you saw in other children's lunchboxes and served on their birthdays or when you visited them at other times.

Of course, years later, you have free access to whatever you want to eat, but you still believe you can't afford anything tasty, this time because you need to keep your weight under control. In reality, however, the same old beliefs from childhood are still talking: 'I'm not allowed to eat that', 'I can't eat what other people eat' and 'Other people can eat it, but I can't'. Even if you persuade yourself, through reasoned argument, to give up foods that may not be the healthiest for you, you still feel like a little child inside, who wants so badly to have a treat. Now, as an adult, you want all those good things even more, and the more you limit yourself, the more unable you are to resist various untameable cravings. You're caught in a vicious circle that sabotages your best intentions to lose weight while dieting.

Why do diets, slimming products and gastric bypass surgery usually fail?

Diets impose overly restrictive conditions on our natural food preferences and eating habits, making it difficult to stick to a diet plan. Knowing that 95% of people who have been on a diet regain the weight they lost in about a year, often with a few extra pounds on top, we can draw the valid conclusion that diets do not work. The longest we can stick to a strictly limited slimming programme is only six weeks, many people can successfully diet for just a few days.

Like dieting, exercise, various weight loss drugs and gastric sleeve surgery will not solve the problems of uncontrollable cravings and overeating. There is always an emotional reason for these problems - most often the need to find comfort when stressed, unhappy, offended or bored.

More than 70% of people suffering from overeating are emotional and dependent eaters. The remaining 20% overeat habitually and unconsciously, and only 10% indulge in binge eating out of anger. In order to successfully lose weight, you need to know what type of eater you are by tackling problems that no diet, diet pill or stomach stapler can tackle.

What's wrong with fast food, processed foods and sweets?

Crisps, sweets and chocolate, cakes, biscuits and other bakery products are NOT food. Neither are margarine and other refined foods, convenience foods and fast foods. They all contain a cocktail of colourings, preservatives, sugars, trans fats and other chemical compounds that your body easily becomes addicted to, because they release dopamine in the body like drugs, and so the body starts to demand more and more of them. Recent research has shown that eating pizzas, burgers, crisps and cakes programs the human brain to crave more and more sugary, salty and fatty foods. The year-on-year rise in fast and convenience food consumption is seen as a clear danger sign, with predictions that the proportion of addictions to 'chemical foods' will soon overtake alcohol addiction.

I use methods that teach you how to make the best possible food choices. You'll start to understand that sweets and chocolate aren't food and they won't make you feel better. If your body had the sole right to decide what you put in your mouth, it would never ask you for crisps or junk food, because it doesn't like constantly breaking down fats and chemicals.

The only part of you that thinks you really want all these "temptations" is your mind. By changing your beliefs and learning to be more and more aware of your body's needs, you control, instruct and influence your mind to be indifferent to junk food, forever. This doesn't mean that you never eat cake or candy again, but that you crave less of it and are always satisfied with less.

Pleasures add joy and sparkle to life, including food experiences. By deciphering the hidden messages your emotions are trying to tell you through your eating patterns, you no longer need to look for quick comfort in the fridge. Instead, you can enjoy the blissful glory of life, your beautiful body, and every mouthful of delicious, healthy food you can wholeheartedly afford.