A Finnish study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reveals a connection between work burnout and overeating. Researchers from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health followed 230 working women and discovered that those who reported higher rates of job-related stress and exhaustion were more prone to "uncontrolled eating" than their peers who weren't as stressed out.
Sherry Pagoto, a clinician at the University of Massachusetts Weight Center and an associate professor of medicine, told the Baltimore Sun that work burnout may cause women to build a habit of emotional eating: essentially, they’ll eat food to contend with difficult emotions. This, as she told the Baltimore Sun, is “not a good idea. It’s reinforcing a habit that’s not healthy. You’re sending yourself the message, ‘I can’t handle this.'”
Pagoto advises emotional eaters to steer clear of vending machines at work and either avoid keeping snacks on hand at their desk or swapping unhealthy snacks for healthy ones. She also highly recommends exercise to deal with work burnout in a healthy way, calling it the “biggest antidote to stress.”
Ladies, do you tend to eat more when you’re stressed out at work?
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