Understanding emotional eating

It’s 9 p.m. You’ve had a long day. You’re not hungry, but suddenly you’re craving an abundance of snacks. Sound familiar? You’re not alone. Emotional eating, which is the act of turning to food for comfort, stress relief, or even boredom, is a coping mechanism many of us fall back on.¹ But while it may offer short-term relief, it rarely solves the problem at hand. In fact, it often leaves us feeling worse.

So why do we do it? And more importantly, how can we break the cycle?

The biology of comfort food

When we’re stressed or anxious, our bodies respond by releasing cortisol, the stress hormone. Cortisol increases cravings for high-energy foods, especially those rich in fat and sugar. These comfort foods, in turn, dampen the stress response, creating a temporary sense of relief.¹

In other words, our brains are wired to seek pleasure and avoid discomfort. When stress spikes, eating can feel like an easy way to soothe ourselves, especially if we don’t have other coping strategies in place. But that relief is often short-lived. Once the temporary high wears off, you’re left with the original emotion, and possibly a side of guilt.

Emotional eating isn’t always about food

While we might blame the snacks, emotional eating is rarely about hunger. It’s often linked to a lack of emotional regulation, which is the ability to recognise, manage, and respond to feelings in a healthy way.²

People who struggle to identify their emotions (a trait known as alexithymia), or who grew up in environments where emotions weren’t validated, are more likely to turn to food when distressed.³ They may also lack the ability to distinguish physical hunger from emotional cues like sadness, boredom, or anxiety, and so food becomes a stand-in for unmet emotional needs.³

Why dieting can make things worse

You might think the solution is willpower or just sticking to a meal plan. But rigid diets, especially those focused on restriction, can backfire hard. When you’re constantly telling yourself not to eat something, it creates a sense of deprivation.

This explains why many people overeat after trying to diet, especially if they’re prone to emotional eating. Chronic dieting, poor emotion regulation, and a history of stress are a perfect storm for rebound eating and weight gain.⁴

So what’s actually going on?

There are several types of emotional eating, and not everyone falls into the same category. For some, it’s a learned behaviour from childhood like when a parent offered sweets as comfort or withheld food as punishment. For others, it’s linked to trauma, depression, or long-standing stress.⁵

In fact, research suggests that emotional eating can act as a mediator between depression and obesity. People with depressive symptoms, especially those with atypical depression marked by increased appetite, may use food to dull negative feelings.¹ Over time, that leads to weight gain, which can reinforce low mood and self-esteem, continuing the cycle.

And for people under chronic stress, the body’s stress response may actually change. Instead of producing the typical “fight or flight” response that blunts appetite, they develop a blunted hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, meaning they actually feel hungrier when stressed.⁶

What emotional eating isn’t

It’s not a lack of discipline. It’s not just being “greedy” or weak. Emotional eating is often a deeply ingrained coping mechanism, reinforced over time and influenced by both biology and environment.

That’s why simplistic advice like “just stop snacking” usually doesn’t work. Instead, the key is building awareness and addressing the root causes behind the eating, whether that’s loneliness, stress, fatigue, or unresolved emotional pain.

How to manage emotional eating

You can’t solve emotional eating overnight, but there are several proven strategies to help you gain control.

1. Pause and identify the trigger

Next time you feel the urge to eat when you’re not hungry, ask yourself: What am I feeling right now? Is it stress? Boredom? Sadness? Sometimes just naming the emotion can reduce its intensity and help you make a different choice.

2. Practise mindfulness

Mindful eating means tuning in when you eat. That includes slowing down, noticing your physical hunger and fullness cues, and being present while you eat. Studies show that mindfulness can reduce emotional eating and even help regulate cortisol levels after stress.⁷

3. Build an emotional toolbox

Food is just one way to soothe emotions, but it doesn’t have to be the only way. Try journaling, taking a walk, calling a friend, or practising deep breathing. It takes time to rewire these habits, but having alternative strategies in your back pocket can be a game-changer.

Find a strategy that works for you, based on your identified triggers. For instance, if it’s boredom, maybe try and find a new activity to occupy your time. 

4. Don’t demonise food

Labelling foods as “good” or “bad” can lead to shame and rebound eating. Aim to remove moral judgement from food, and focus on how different foods make you feel physically and emotionally. That shift alone can reduce the all-or-nothing mindset that fuels emotional eating.

5. Look beyond the plate

If your emotional eating is persistent or linked to trauma, depression, or disordered eating patterns, it may be time to speak with a therapist or registered dietitian. Approaches like CBT, DBT (dialectical behaviour therapy), and mindfulness-based interventions have all shown promise in helping people manage emotional eating in the long term.⁸

The numan take

We don’t eat emotionally because we’re broken. We do it because it once worked, albeit briefly. But over time, food can’t carry the weight of all our emotions. And the good news is, it doesn’t have to. By building better awareness, finding healthier coping strategies, and treating ourselves with compassion, we can stop eating to feel better, and actually feel better instead.

References

1. Dakanalis A, Mentzelou M, Papadopoulou SK, Papandreou D, Spanoudaki M, Vasios GK, et al. The association of emotional eating with overweight/obesity, depression, anxiety/stress, and dietary patterns: A review of the current clinical evidence. Nutrients. 2023;15(5).

2. Ackermans M, Jonker N, de Jong P. Adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation skills are associated with food intake following a hunger-induced increase in negative emotions. Appetite. 2024;193: 107148.

3. Shank LM, Tanofsky-Kraff M, Kelly NR, Jaramillo M, Rubin SG, Altman DR, et al. The association between alexithymia and eating behavior in children and adolescents. Appetite. 2019;142(104381): 104381.

4. Frayn M, Livshits S, Knäuper B. Emotional eating and weight regulation: a qualitative study of compensatory behaviors and concerns. Journal of eating disorders. 2018;6(1): 23.

5. Braden A, Musher-Eizenman D, Watford T, Emley E. Eating when depressed, anxious, bored, or happy: Are emotional eating types associated with unique psychological and physical health correlates? Appetite. 2018;125: 410–417.

6. Chang RS, Cerit H, Hye T, Durham EL, Aizley H, Boukezzi S, et al. Stress-induced alterations in HPA-axis reactivity and mesolimbic reward activation in individuals with emotional eating. Appetite. 2022;168(105707): 105707.

7. Daubenmier J, Kristeller J, Hecht FM, Maninger N, Kuwata M, Jhaveri K, et al. Mindfulness intervention for stress eating to reduce cortisol and abdominal fat among overweight and obese women: An exploratory randomized controlled study. Journal of obesity. 2011;2011: 651936. 

8. Vogel EN, Singh S, Accurso EC. A systematic review of cognitive behavior therapy and dialectical behavior therapy for adolescent eating disorders. Journal of eating disorders. 2021;9(1): 131.