The WHY Behind Emotional Eating & How To Cope

Food is fuel, we eat to survive.

In a PERFECT world satisfying physical hunger would be the ONLY reason we consumed food, but let’s be real, this isn’t a perfect world. We also turn to food to cope with our emotions. When you eat in response to emotions it is considered emotional eating. Emotional eating is not uncommon, especially in a world where highly palatable foods are so readily available to us. Overindulgence on occasion is okay, but not taking control of our emotions and constantly turning to food for comfort can be detrimental to your physical and mental health.

There are a few common reasons we tend to gravitate towards food for a means of comfort to get through tough times.

• Trying to relieve the feeling of boredom by using food as a distraction or means of passing time is a common cause of emotional eating. Boredom often causes a feeling of dissatisfaction with our life and can leave us feeling unfulfilled and empty, food is often a way to occupy our hands, mouth, mind, and time.

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• Stress is also a common trigger for us to emotionally eat. High levels of cortisol are produced during times of stress. Cortisol triggers cravings for sweet and salty, high fat foods, these foods give us a very short lived burst of energy and temporary feeling of pleasure.

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• Lastly, hiding from or avoiding emotions all together is often another cause of emotional eating. Uncomfortable emotions like fear, anxiety, loneliness, shame, and resentment can make us want to “numb” ourselves, so oftentimes food and mindless eating are a perfect distraction.

For many of us the comfort of food is almost impossible to resist, it is something that has been with us since childhood.

A few good ways to cope with emotional eating are to:

• Identify foods that you tend to grab when you are in an emotional or stressed out state, and try to avoid keeping those foods on hand.

• Try keeping a journal of food logs and how you feel after eating certain foods, especially if you are in a state of high stress. Do certain foods cause you to feel guilty after eating? Do you notice any particular pattern with certain foods and emotions?

• Choose healthier snack options. If you are in a high state of stress or anxiety or even boredom, keep foods on hand that won’t cause excess guilt or shame. Those types of foods often leave us feeling worse off after the fact.

• Lastly, reach out to someone. This can be a friend, a loved one, or even a coach or therapist for talking through your feelings and for extra accountability.

Creating a good base of habits around food and mealtimes is the best way to cope with emotional eating. On top of that, getting to the root source of your emotions, and identifying YOUR WHY behind emotional eating is the most important thing. Ridding yourself of the chains of emotional eating can truly be freeing!