What Is Emotional Eating?

Emotional eating is when people use food as a way to deal with feelings instead of satisfying hunger.【小题1】Have you ever finished a whole bag of chips out of boredom or downed cookie after cookie while preparing for a big test? But when done a lot — especially without realizing it — emotional eating can affect weight, health, and overall well-being.

Not many of us make the connection between eating and our feelings.

【小题2】One of the biggest myths about emotional eating is that it’s caused by negative feelings. Yes, people often turn to food when they’re stressed out, lonely, sad, anxious, or bored. But emotional eating can be linked to positive feelings too, like the romance of sharing dessert on Valentine’s Day or the celebration of a holiday feast. Sometimes emotional eating is tied to major life events, like a death or a divorce. 【小题3】

Emotional eating patterns can be learned: A child who is given candy after a big achievement may grow up using candy as a reward for a job well done. 【小题4】It’s not easy to “unlearn” patterns of emotional eating. But it is possible. And it starts with an awareness of what’s going on.

We’re all emotional eaters to a degree. But for some people emotional eating can be a real problem, causing serious weight gain or other problems. The trouble with emotional eating is that once the pleasure of eating is gone, the feelings that cause it remain. 【小题5】That’s why it helps to know the difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger.

Next time you reach for a snack, wait and think about which type of hunger is driving it.