I want to stop using emotional eating when stressed. How can I break this habit?

"All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt." - Charles M. Schulz 

Food, like air and sleep, is our body’s basic need. Our body tells us that we need to eat to get the energy we need to live, and our body also signals us that we feel full and we stop eating after a meal. 

But food is more than a basic need. It also holds an emotional meaning to many of us. Food is also in our culture, a sweetener to our relationships and it can be used to express our passion. 

But when does eating cause problems? In a recent survey by the American Psychological Association, almost 4 in 10 Americans have struggled with emotional eating, and half of them say that they eat when they are stressed on a weekly basis.  

What is emotional eating? 

Rather than being an eating disorder, emotional eating or also called comfort eating is a behavior or eating pattern that is linked with certain behaviors, stress, and feelings. 

A person affected by this stress-induced eating tends to eat as a response to negative feelings. Often, one chooses food that brings good feelings such as sweets, salty and savory food. 

Hunger- is it physical or emotional? 

You may know if you are an emotional eater based on these questions: 

• Do you tend to eat your comfort food when you feel stressed? 
• Do you eat even if you are not hungry or despite being full? 
• Do you eat in order to feel good again after an unpleasant feeling? 
• Do you treat food as a reward? 
• Do you have a tendency to continue eating even after you feel full? 
• Does food give you a feeling of safety? 
• Do you feel that you are not able to exercise self-control when there is food? 

If the answer to many of these questions is ‘yes’, then you may be in an emotional eating cycle. 

In contrast, eating due to physical hunger may look like this: 

• Your hunger starts slowly and gradually intensifies. 
• Hunger is linked to the time you had your last meal. 
• You feel satisfied after eating. 
• You tend to stop eating after feeling full. 
• Food does not give you unpleasant feelings like guilt or shame. 

Emotional eating is a cycle that starts with feeling upset over a situation. This acts as a trigger. Then there is the need to feel better through food. Next is a tendency to overeat. Then one feeling guilty or helpless because one was not able to control their eating habit. Lastly, negative emotions arise causing the person to engage in emotional eating again.

In order to break this cycle, one must start with awareness and with the addition of healthier routines. 

• Recognize possible triggers at the moment the urge to eat comes up. Am I really hungry? Or is something in this situation stresses me out? If the “hunger” is not physical, but a way to cope, then find an activity you can do to replace eating. 

• If you are bored or just feeling sad, you may need to talk to a friend or a loved one. If it is because you are stressed after work, you may benefit from several minutes of a calming walk in nature, or even from working out in the gym. 

• Some people also engage in emotional eating at irregular hours late at night. Maybe establishing a healthier and more regular nighttime routine will help you get the rest that your body needs and prevent you from reaching for food when you are really sleepy. 

Being entangled in the emotional eating cycle is not easy, but there are solutions. You may want to get assistance from nutrition experts to teach you how to eat healthy and how to develop eating patterns that support your physical and mental health. 

If your eating habits have started to have unpleasant consequences in your life, talking with a mental health professional can help you develop healthy coping skills for stress and negative emotions. 

Let your relationship with food be healthy and let it support your body and mind! 

If you are in search of an amazing career opportunity in health care or in the mental health industry, check how a job board can expand your choices!