Emotional eating is a coping strategy to deal with unpleasant emotions. It’s not the same thing as physical hunger. People who experience emotional eating may consume more calories than they need and eat convenient comfort foods that aren’t as nutritious.
There are several ways you may be able to manage emotional eating including exercise, mindful eating and reducing stress are some examples.
Studies have found that exercise may lessen the impact of negative emotions and depression which can lead to emotional eating.
Practicing stress reduction may also help. Not only does stress cause unwanted negative emotions, but it can also interfere with your awareness of your body’s hunger and fullness cues. Noticing these signals can help to prevent you from overeating.
Emotional eating can be automatic, so adopting a mindful eating approach may also help. Mindful eating strategies include:
paying attention to whether you’re hungry and when you become full
eating slowly
taking small bites and savouring each one
keeping a food log and thinking about what you’re eating
If curbing the urge for emotional eating is too difficult, you may be able to lessen its adverse effects. Removing sugary and fat-laden foods from your home reduces your access to addictive food items. Keeping washed and cut vegetables in the fridge ready for snacking turns emotional eating into an opportunity to consume extra nutrition.