by Howard Farkas

Created on: March 24, 2009   Last Updated: June 29, 2009

What do movies, lipstick, and Tootsie Rolls have in common? They all thrive in difficult economic times. And that connection can teach us a lot about overeating.

On March 24, 2009, PBS ran a documentary called "The Powder and the Glory," that chronicled the careers of rival cosmetics titans Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein. The film describes how throughout the Great Depression, while the economy crashed, their cosmetics businesses thrived. Estee Lauder chairman, Leonard Lauder, dubbed this the "Lipstick Effect."

On the same day, an article appeared in the New York Times, with the headline: "When Economy Sours, Tootsie Rolls Soothe Souls."
The article, which was number one on the Times list of most emailed, shows how the same effect can be seen today with candy.

The movie industry thrived during the 1930s as well. It provided a welcome escape from the reality of what was going on outside. Perhaps more importantly, it was an indulgence in entertainment, which most would consider to be a non-essential activity, but one that could be affordable even in the most difficult times. Economists call all of these purchases "affordable luxuries" and explain that they become in greater demand as family budgets tighten.

The idea of using responsible self-indulgence as a counterweight to economic stress, especially the example of eating more candy, made me think about emotional eating. After all, this phenomenon is really not about economics, it's about human nature. We can experience stress during good economic times too. One way we calm ourselves when we're stressed is to find a way to balance the stress by indulging.

But sometimes we don't indulge responsibly. Perhaps this is proportionate to the degree of stress we experience, or possibly it's because we can't find a more appropriate way to act on the need to indulge reasonably. I believe this may be, for many people, the point when they are most vulnerable to emotional eating, as overindulgence in food serves as a counterweight to being overwhelmed by stress.

Ironically, perhaps the greatest cause of stress and deprivation that leads to overeating is dieting! Over the past 20 years, researchers have studied the effects of restraint on eating and have found that those who deprive themselves the most are also most prone to binge eating. It's kind of like a dam bursting after artificially holding back what would otherwise have been a peacefully flowing stream.

That's not a bad way to think about the downside of dieting. As most dieters know, reaching your "goal weight" is not even half the battle. It's keeping the weight off. The feeling of deprivation that's set up by dieting creates the same need to find balance through indulgence as economic deprivation.

Just as water must find its own level, our mind and body will make the necessary adjustments in behavior to find the balance that we always need.

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