Healthytalk8 Overeating is referred to when a person consumes more calories than enough energy, which leads to obesity, and other serious health issues.
It is defined as a “binge eating” disorder or “bulimia nervosa“.
Overeating most commonly occurs in obese individuals, but it is not limited to them (1) (2). Overeating has many reasons including:
- tend to run in families (genes)
- terrifying life event
- depression, stress, and anxiety
- became a habit
- low self-esteem
It occurs due to difficulty in reward processing and inhibitory control, where the person becomes addicted to eating.
So today’s article will provide you with overeating and its potential effect on health.
Obesity
Contents
Many research studies show that it is highly linked to obesity (3).
Obesity is one of the most commonly reported health issues, which is mostly shown in overeating or frequent eating people (4).
Individuals who binge eat are more likely to become obese than those who are without disordered eating (5).
Research suggests that overeating doesn’t cause obesity, but rather, increases body fatness, resulting from the effects of diet on hormones and metabolism.
In addition, stress and negative affect are increasingly recognized as risk factors for obesity and binge eating disorder (5) (6) (7) (8).
If obesity occurs then it may lead to many health issues including:
- Diabetes
- heart disease
- certain cancers
- risk of bone fracture
- make it hard to get pregnant
- Increase early death chance
- Affect periods, duration, time, and length
Check Out – Obesity, And Pregnancy, Is Any Relation B/W Them, Risk
Increase disease risk
People with overeating are more likely to develop a number of potentially serious health problems, including:
Studies suggest a number of ways that overeating may increase the risk for cancer.
And even may lead to the development of binge eating after a cancer diagnosis.
Human studies have shown that high-energy intake has not been consistently allied with increased breast cancer risk.
Binge eating is significantly linked with obesity which may lead to many serious health issues.
Obesity can affect the body’s insulin level (control blood sugar levels) which raises the risk of insulin resistance and diabetes.
Binge eating, push back stomach acid into the esophagus resulting in heartburn, nausea, and indigestion feeling.
In severe cases, nausea may trigger vomiting, which may relieve acute stomach pressure (9).
High levels of fat in your blood, elevated blood pressure, insulin resistance, and inflammation (10).
May lead to stress, anxiety, and depression
Low mood and negative feelings are shown to be related to severe eating impulsiveness, which leads to significant mental health impairment
People with overeating report negative effects on mental health (ie: depression and anxiety).
People with overeating report higher rates of anxiety than those without overeating, after controlling for obesity (11) (12).
Overeating regularly can negatively affect your mental health, which even, increases small stress and anxiety levels (13).
A study on older adults found that being overweight (highly allied to overeating) negatively affected memory, compared with normal-weight people.
Depression may worsen with weight gain or obesity-related health issues (associated with long-term overeating) (14).
check out – Is Music Can Treat Mental and Physical illness?
Increase more appetite
There are two major hormones that regulate hunger, – ghrelin (which stimulates appetite), and leptin (which tells your body it is full) (15).
And overeating may disturb this balance.
Frequent overeating increases the size of the stomach, which increases appetite, and also causes frequent more eating, than usual.
Increased appetite not only causes overeating, but it might be a sign of underlying health issues including:
- Mental issues (i.e stress, appetite, and depression)
- premenstrual syndrome
- overactive thyroid gland
- graves disease (an autoimmune disease)
- low blood sugar level
- diabetes
- pregnancy
Make you sleepy
Overeating leads to the release of sleep hormones called melatonin, which makes one more sleepy and dizzy (16).
Especially, foods rich in protein and carbohydrates can make people feel sleepier than other foods (17).
However, overeating may disturb sleep, where over food in the stomach leads to heartburn, stomach pain, and in older adults difficulty in sleeping.
Research indicated that sleep problems may also be allied with binge eating (which is associated with obesity) (18).
It found that partial sleep deprivation (missing a few hours of sleep) per night, is linked to taking in more calories the next day.
In addition, also people eat while they’re sleeping, especially during the first few hours of sleep, called a sleep-related eating disorder.
And have no memory of eating the next day.
More chance of Heart attack
As we know that overeating is significantly allied with being overweight, which highly increases the risk of a heart attack.
A 2000 study presented that heavy meals increase the risk of heart attack by 4 times within 2 hours after eating.
NOTE: According to the MED life report, 40% of Indians who are below 55 years of age start having a heart attack.
Digest food requires more energy, which increases blood pressure, and HBP separates cholesterol plaques in the wall of the arteries.
Which causes clot formation (blocking the blood flow to the heart) and causes a heart attack or stroke.
If overeating may not become a reason for heart attack, then being overweight may be another reason.
Check Out – Yoga For Healthy Heart | Food To Eat And Avoid
Increase Mortality rate
But why do people love overeating instead of living a healthy life?
Because overeating is linked to our reward sensitivity called dopamine (which is a feel-good hormone).
There is strong evidence linking this behavior with changes in reward-related brain regions.
Overeating definitely leads to many health issues which decrease life quality, reduce the working ability and lead to early death (19).
Of course, overeating leading cause of ill health and premature death (20).
In addition, early death or mortality is higher in obese people, than in people with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS).
Check Out – The Great Debate: Is Excessive Sleeping Healthy or Not Healthy?
Overeating leads to gas and bloating
Overeating is probably the most common cause of bloating, especially in rich fatty food (21).
Bloating after a meal is experienced by most people and is not a cause of concern, but it is easily avoided by doing simple things including:
- Not eating too much fiber
- avoid overeating
- be aware of food allergies
- avoid high-fat food
- eat and drink slowly
- avoid chewing gum which allows the person to suck more air
- do not talk while eating
- ginger (an effective remedy for the digestive tract)
Eating is a common cause of bloating, due to the stomach digesting food, which produces gas.
BOTTOM LINE
Binge eating is highly allied with overweight and obesity, and obesity is linked to many serious health issues.
Obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg m−2) among adult males in the past few years, which slowly become a worldwide epidemic.
Frequent Binge eating can also affect mental health, where persons are at more risk of depression, and other mental health issues.
