Introduction to emotional eating

What is emotional eating?

People eat for a variety of reasons, not just because they are hungry. Food and eating can be very social and often form part of cultural celebrations or rituals. People may also eat at times due to habit, boredom, availability of the food or because it is what other people are doing. There are also occasions when people eat in response to emotions and this is often called ‘emotional eating’. Examples of emotional eating can include times when people eat to numb or manage a particular distressing emotion, such as anxiety, anger or sadness.

The term ‘comfort eating’ is often used in relation to emotional eating as food is used to provide comfort in times of emotional distress. Another term that is used to describe emotional eating is, ‘compulsive eating’ which is when people feel a strong urge, craving or compulsion to eat in response to an often sudden, hunger or emptiness which they feel can only be satisfied by eating (usually) high fat or high sugar foods.

How common is emotional eating?

It is believed that most people eat in response to their emotions to some extent. However, there are a few people at one end who only eat when physically hungry and never or rarely eat for other reasons. At the other end of the scale are people who have an eating disorder, whose eating and use of food has become completely interlinked with their emotions and they have lost sense of their physical hunger needs. Most of us probably fall somewhere in the middle and may at different times of our lives experience different levels of emotional eating.

Emotional eating is probably so common because societies reinforce it; we often offer someone a hot drink and something to eat if they are feeling upset. Food may also be used as a reward or to celebrate something, so again it is used to reflect positive feelings. Giving or sharing food has connotations of kindness and love, so it is no surprise really that we may turn to food to give us a sense of comfort and relief from distressing feelings.

When is emotional eating a problem?

A degree of emotional eating seems to be common and is not a problem for many people. However, if we come to rely upon food to manage our emotions, perhaps because we have no other ways to deal with them, then emotional eating is an added problem.

This is because it often leads to weight gain and all the problems associated with that.

Furthermore, relying upon emotional eating prevents us from finding better ways for dealing with our problems and difficult emotions and our problems and distress remain.