Emotional Eating: Feeding Your Emotions

Emotional eating occurs when people use food to deal with feelings rather than to satisfy hunger. We've all done it: finished an entire bag of chips out of boredom or downed cookie after cookie while studying for a big test. However, when done frequently — especially unknowingly — emotional eating can have an impact on weight, health, and overall well-being.

Few of us make the connection between food and our emotions. Understanding what motivates emotional eating, on the other hand, can help people take steps to change it.

When you're happy, you might eat steak or pizza; when you're sad, you might eat ice cream or cookies; and when you're bored, you might eat potato chips. Food does more than fill our stomachs; it also satisfies our feelings, and emotional eating occurs when you quench those feelings with comfort food when your stomach isn't growling.

"Emotional eating" is defined as "eating for reasons other than hunger," according to Jane Jakubczak, a registered dietitian at the University of Maryland. "Rather than a physical symptom of hunger initiating eating, an emotion triggers eating."

What are the telltale signs of emotional eating, what foods are the most likely culprits, and how can they be overcome? Experts assist WebMD in locating solutions. How to Tell Them Apart

According to the University of Texas Counseling and Mental Health Center website, there are several distinctions between emotional and physical hunger:

1. Emotional hunger strikes suddenly, whereas physical hunger develops gradually.

2. When you eat to fill a void that isn't caused by an empty stomach, you crave a specific food, such as pizza or ice cream, and only that food will satisfy your craving. When you eat because you are hungry, you are open to new possibilities.

3. Emotional hunger requires immediate satisfaction with the food you crave; physical hunger can wait.

4. You are more likely to eat even when you are full if you are eating to satisfy an emotional need. When you eat for hunger, you are more likely to stop when you are full.

5. Emotional eating can lead to feelings of guilt; eating for physical hunger does not. Foods of Solace

When emotional hunger strikes, one of its distinguishing features is that you are fixated on a specific food, most likely a comfort food.

"Comfort foods are foods that people eat to obtain or maintain a feeling," says Brian Wansink, Ph.D., director of the University of Illinois' Food and Brand Lab. "While comfort foods are frequently associated with negative moods, and people do consume them when they are down or depressed, comfort foods are also consumed to maintain good moods."

The first item on the list of comfort foods is ice cream. Following ice cream, comfort foods are classified according to gender: Wansink explains that women prefer chocolate and cookies, while men prefer pizza, steak, and casserole.

And what you reach for when eating to satisfy an emotion depends on the emotion. According to an article by Wansink published in the July 2000 issue of American Demographics, "The types of comfort foods that a person gravitates towards change depending on their mood. People in a good mood preferred... foods such as pizza or steak (32%). Sad people reached for ice cream and cookies 39% of the time, while bored people reached for potato chips 36% of the time."

Overfeeding Emotions

"We all eat for emotional reasons sometimes," says Jakubczak, who has talked to college students at the University of Maryland about emotional eating.

When eating becomes the only or main strategy a person uses to manage emotions, explains Jakubczak, then problems arise -- especially if the foods a person is choosing to eat to satisfy emotions aren't exactly healthy.

"If you eat when you are not hungry, chances are your body does not need the calories," says Jakubczak. "If this happens too often, the extra calories get stored as fat, and too much fat storage can cause one to be overweight, which may present some health risks."

Identifying Emotional Eating

"The first step in overcoming emotional eating is to recognize it," says Jakubczak. "Keeping a food diary and rating your hunger from 1 to 10 each time you eat something will reveal 'if' and 'when' you are eating for reasons other than hunger."

After that, you should learn techniques for managing emotions other than eating, according to Jakubczak.

"When a child is sad, we often cheer them up with a sweet treat," Jakubczak says. "This behavior is reinforced year after year until we are performing the same behavior as adults. We never learned how to deal with sadness because we always pushed it away with something sweet.

Emotional Eating Management

Here are some coping strategies for emotional eating:

Recognize emotional eating and learn what causes it in you.

• According to the Tufts Nutrition website, make a list of things to do when you have the urge to eat but aren't hungry and keep it with you. When you're feeling overwhelmed, distract yourself with another enjoyable activity. Try taking a walk, calling a friend, playing cards, cleaning your room, doing laundry, or something productive to take your mind off the craving -- even taking a nap, according to the Tufts Nutrition website.

• When you feel the urge to eat when you aren't hungry, choose healthy comfort food instead of junk food. "Comfort foods don't have to be unhealthy," Wansink says.

• It can be emotionally difficult for some people to give up comfort foods while dieting. "The key is moderation, not elimination," Wansink tells WebMD. He recommends dividing comfort foods into smaller servings. For example, if you have a large bag of chips, divide it into smaller containers or baggies to avoid the temptation of eating more than one serving.

• Wansink also offers this piece of advice when it comes to comfort foods that aren't always healthy, such as fattening desserts: "Your memory of food peaks after about four bites, so if you only have those bites, a week later you'll recall it as just a good experience rather than if you polished off the whole thing." So eat a few bites of cheesecake and then stop, and you'll get the same pleasure at a lower cost.

Finally, keep in mind that most people eat emotionally when they are bored, happy, or sad. It could be a bag of chips or a steak, but learning to control one's eating habits and exercising moderation is essential.