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Health
Stress Eating is Causing People to Put On The "COVID 19 Pounds"
Have you heard the expression, "Freshman 15"? It refers to the 15 pounds (7 kilograms) of weight college freshmen typically gain from stress eating during their first year of college.
You might be hearing about the "COVID 19," which refers to the almost 20 pounds (9 kilograms) many of us are going to gain from stress eating while confined to our homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On social media, people are reporting plowing through the food they have stockpiled and hoped would last for months, in just days. If anybody wants to know, I have no idea what happened to the two cans of peaches that were in my cupboard.
In a March 20, 2020 article, Nielsen Market Research disclosed to MSN Money that Americans are stocking up on more than just toilet paper, they're also buying chocolate candy, ice cream, potato chips, popcorn, and pastries.
The article quotes Nielsen's executive vice president of U.S. manufacturer client success, Laura McCullough, as saying that consumers are grabbing "the types of foods that may make their social distancing even a little more tolerable."
Besides making isolation more tolerable, stress eating is helping to relieve our stress, and what people are choosing to eat is interesting. In my family, it's pasta (OK, that's me), tomato soup and Oreo cookies.
In a poll I recently conducted on a local Facebook group, people in my neighborhood reported snarfing:
Girl Scout cookies
Curry
Chips and soda
Oreo cookies
Mountain Dew
The comments people left varied. Caroline said, "Butter noodles" (a girl after my own heart), and Nytasha said, "Soups mainly, and it's funny because I hate soup." Misty reported, "Chicken in a biscuit crackers. That's what I hoarded, 5 boxes," and two people, Bryan and Gabby, said, "Fruit and veggies, no one shops in those isles."
In a March 17, 2020 article, the journal Psychology Today described the fear, anxiety, and uncertainty that people are experiencing due to the outbreak. Those feelings, coupled with the need for social distancing, is creating a perfect storm of stress.