How do you deal with anger? Do you repress it, or do you let it out? Do you struggle with weight loss? These two questions might seem unrelated but that's not the case, according to this article from Glee Magazine, which alleges that how you deal with anger is crucial to your ability to lose weight. More specifically, those who bottle their anger find it more difficult to lose or maintain their weight because they use food as a way of dealing with their uncomfortable emotions.

I think this idea makes a lot of sense, and can be applied to how someone deals with any type of emotion. Many overeaters are emotional eaters, after all, and tend to binge when emotions get overwhelming. Releasing emotions in an healthy manner is important to overcoming any sort of addictive or bingeing behaviour.

What do you think of this hypothesis?

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Recently I talked about binge-eating disorder (BED) being the most widespread of eating disorders. But when it comes to binge eating, I suspect there are few of us who haven't gone on a binge from time to time. You know, like that time you polished off the entire tray of brownies, or you put away five slices of pizza in one sitting. But binge-eating disorder is vastly different from 'normal' overeating. Here are some key differences, according to Psych Central:

• Those with BED feel very ashamed when they overeat. If there's no onslaught of emotion after the binge, it's not BED
• Those with BED don't like to binge in public/
  
• When it's BED, the binges occur frequently -- at least twice a week for six months
• Those who suffer from BED don't feel physiological cues like hunger or fullness - they're more focused on emotional cues.
  

If you think you may suffer from BED, contact your doctor.

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Bulimia nervosa, like anorexia nervosa, is an eating disorder that centers around control. One of the most common eating disorders, bulimia is characterized by consuming large amounts of food and then ridding the stomach of its contents by way of vomiting, over-exercising, or use of laxatives.

Eating to excess (called the "binge") is comforting to bulimics. But eating too much causes them to feel out of control. They also feel guilt, shame, and a fear of weight gain which causes them to "purge." This "binge and purge" cycle is extremely dangerous and can lead to serious and long-term health problems, like tooth decay, gum disease, loss of tooth enamel, osteoporosis, kidney damage, heart problems, and even death.

Because bulimia is harder to recognize than anorexia -- the symptoms are more subtle and bulimics are not always thin -- awareness is critical. Please consider these symptoms and physical effects of bulimia.

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There are about a billion articles floating around on how to make sure you or your kids don't OD on Halloween candy, including this one, which suggests that you let your kids have a couple of treats, but them give away the rest to your co-workers or the local soup kitchen. Or, just throw them out.

What do you think of this idea? I understand that sugar isn't good for kids and they should be taught moderation when it comes to treats, but I don't think it's fair for mom or dad to take away all the treats that the kids braved the cold and the neighbourhood dogs to collect. The message there is that they shouldn't bother working for something they want because it will just get taken away (though that's a good lesson to prepare them for taxes later on in life.) Plus, it ruins all the fun.

Here's a trick that my parents used -- they kept our Halloween candy and let us choose a few pieces for our lunch every day until it was gone, which was sometime around Christmas. It still allowed us to feel like the candy was ours, but it kept us from bingeing (except when we found where they hid the candy -- bwahahaha!) And I turned out ok, so I can honestly say that if you allow your kids to actually eat their Halloween candy, it won't ruin their lives.

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A rumbling tummy is a dangerous thing. It can cause you to make bizarre, unhealthy choices in your quest for food. But in order to avoid the damage to your waistline, not to mention the guilt and shame, that comes with a bad-food binge, here are some tips on how to fill up without de-railing your diet, courtesy of Women's Health Magazine:

• Make a date: Studies show that women eat less on dates. Though I think this is more true of first or second dates.
  
• Fill up on berries: They're healthy and tastier enough to be binge-worthy.
  
• Eat high-fiber foods: They're shown to keep you fuller longer
• Take multi-vitamin: Studies show that when your body lacks nutrients, it makes up for it in hunger
• Eat with your left hand (or right-hand for lefties): It will challenge your brain and lead you to eat more slowly

For more great tips, read the full article, and be sure to let us know what your secret is in the comments.

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In most cases getting pregnant is beneficial for eating disorders, with many commonly going into remission while the baby is growing. But binge eating, one of the most common eating disorders, has been found to actually get worse for some women during pregnancy -- especially for those with lower incomes.

This data comes from an enormous study of over 41,000 women in Norway, so the results are pretty scary. This urges all doctors and other pregnancy specialists to be aware of these risks when treating their patients, and the next step for researchers is to take a look at how these issues may affect the babies born to women with pregnancy-related binging disorders.

Have you experienced anything like this either yourself, or with a friend/someone in your family?

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Do you know the difference between overeating and bingeing? I think the line is a bit blurry -- is having 2 or 3 helpings of dinner even though you're not hungry considered bingeing? How about filling your large plate to maximum capacity at the all-you-can-eat Indian buffet? I'm inclined to say that neither of these are cases of bingeing simply because they're not emotionally-driven (at least for me they're not); instead, I think they're instances of our eyes being too big for our stomachs, or of our desire to receive the taste and satisfaction of eating something tasty, ignoring the impending guilt that is sure to come.

The Centre for Emotional Well-being looked into this same question and concluded that binge eating has any three of the following qualities:

1. Eating faster than normal
2. Feeling unable to control your eating
   
3. Eating until feeling uncomfortably full
4. Eating large amounts of food when you are not physically hungry
5. Eating alone or hiding eating to avoid embarrassment
6. Feeling ashamed, disgusted, depressed, distressed or guilty about overeating.

To find out more, or if you think you may be a binge eater, read the full article.

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90% (ok, 80%) of the time, I eat healthfully and am very conscientious about what goes into my body. But every now and then, I fall off the health wagon and go on a binge -- one that is characterized by consumption of the distinctly un-healthy things, like pizza, chocolate, ice cream, alcohol or all of the above. Being of a normal metabolism, these occasional binges negatively affect my waistline and set me back severely in my quest for a flat stomach. Oddly (or not so oddly), I've noticed that these binges always seem to happen on weekends, when I chuck my routine to the wind and fly by the seat of my pants.

Fortunately, there's advice for us bingers. For me, something that would help would be establishing a routine on weekends to avoid that 'in-between' time -- when the chocolate caramel swirl ice cream's beckoning usually becomes too much to handle.

How will you bust your binges?

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What do you do when you're stressed? Do you get angry? Do you cry? Do you go for a run? Or do you reach for the double stuff oreos and madly shove them down your gullet until you are covered in cookie crumbs and feeling very ashamed of yourself? If you answered the latter, you're an emotional eater. If you eat when your sad, or mad, or glad (Dr. Seuss?), you're also an emotional eater. For me, it's usually sadness or boredom that cause me to raid the pantry with feckless abandon. But this always makes me feel worse than I did before, and guess what that causes? More emotional eating.

Yes, it's a vicious circle, but it can be stopped. The first step is realizing you have a problem. For ideas on how to control your emotional cravings, check out this article.

What are your ideas for ending emotional eating?

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