Medical Review by Jennie Stanford, MD, FAAFP, DABOM
Summary
- Emotional eating happens when you use food to cope with feelings, like stress, sadness, or boredom—leading to unhealthy habits and emotional distress.
- Emotional eating often involves cravings for high-fat, sugary foods, which can feel comforting in the moment but contribute to unhealthy patterns over time.
- Genetics and hormones, like cortisol, ghrelin, and dopamine, play a role in increasing cravings. This enhances the brain’s reward response to food and promotes overeating.
- Strategies, like cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness, acceptance and commitment therapy, and behavioral weight loss, help you identify triggers, develop healthier coping methods, and build lasting habits.
Emotional eating: Why it happens & how to address it
Emotional eating happens when you turn to food for comfort or distraction, instead of eating because you’re hungry. It’s a common way to cope with feelings like stress, sadness, boredom, or loneliness.
Approximately 20% of U.S. adults say that they emotionally eat ‘often’ or ‘very often’. But, while grabbing high-calorie, tasty treats might feel good in the moment, it can lead to unhealthy eating habits, weight gain, and emotional distress over time.
By understanding what triggers emotional eating, you can learn to spot your patterns, address the root causes, and find healthier ways to cope. This helps you build a more mindful and positive relationship with food.
In this article, we’ll explore common emotional eating triggers and share tips to help you identify your triggers, break the cycle, and build healthier coping strategies.
At Lemonaid Health, we’re here to support you on your weight loss journey. We offer access to mental health resources and, if clinically indicated, medication to help you reach your goals.
Common triggers
Emotional eating often begins with a trigger—an emotional or psychological state that prompts the urge to eat for comfort rather than hunger. The most common feelings that can lead to emotional eating are:
Stress
Stress is one of the most common culprits, as the body releases cortisol during stressful times, increasing cravings for high-fat, high-sugar foods. People under chronic stress are more likely to reach for “comfort foods” as a way to self-soothe, creating a cycle that’s hard to break.
Sadness
Feelings of sadness or loneliness often lead to emotional voids that food seems to fill. A tub of ice cream might feel soothing in the moment, but overeating during low moods can lead to further emotional distress.
Boredom
When boredom strikes, food can feel like an easy way to fill the void. Snacking while scrolling on your phone or watching TV might seem harmless, but it often leads to eating more than you need and choosing less healthy options.
The science of emotional eating
Emotional eating is more than just a response to hunger; it’s a complex process influenced by genes and hormones that affect our cravings, food choices, and behavior. These factors play a crucial role in how we feel and what we eat, especially during times of stress, sadness, or boredom.
Ghrelin can make you crave carbs (& other foods)
Ghrelin, often called the “hunger hormone,” plays a key role in emotional eating. It doesn’t just make you feel hungry—it also affects your cravings for certain foods, especially tasty options, like carbohydrates and sugars. Its impacts also affect the brain’s reward circuit, making food feel more enjoyable and encouraging eating for comfort or pleasure, even when you’re not hungry.
Cortisol could activate your comfort food cravings
Cortisol, the body’s “stress hormone” plays a role in how and what we eat, particularly during stressful times. When cortisol levels rise, it activates brain regions linked to stress and reward, making you crave high-fat, sugary comfort foods.
This can lead to unhealthy eating patterns, especially during times of stress. High cortisol levels also contribute to insulin resistance, which affects your blood sugar levels and can lead to weight gain.
Dopamine may make you want to eat more than usual
Dopamine plays a big role in emotional eating by influencing your cravings and decisions around food. When you eat, especially foods high in sugar or fat, your brain releases dopamine, which activates the pleasure centers in your brain, making you want to eat more. Dopamine affects both your mood and how much food you take in, creating a cycle where eating becomes a way to feel better.
Your genetics can also influence your eating habits
Your genetics can influence how likely you are to emotionally eat. Research has shown that the tendency to emotionally eat is a trait some people inherit. 23andMe’s Emotional Eating PRS Report uses over 2,200 genetic markers to estimate your tendency toward frequent emotional eating1. This report is part of the 23andMe+ Premium membership, offering a personalized way to learn more about your genetic predispositions.
Identifying personal triggers & breaking the cycle
Emotional eating can feel overwhelming, but there are effective, evidence-based approaches that can help you regain control of your eating habits and build healthier coping strategies.
The first step is to become more self-aware by recognizing your emotional eating triggers, such as stress, boredom, or sadness. Once you identify these triggers, you can work on addressing them in healthier ways. Here are some psychotherapy approaches that can help:
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
Cognitive behavioral therapy helps you identify and change negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. The goal of CBT is to help you develop healthier thinking patterns and coping strategies. CBT helps you recognize how your thoughts about food, body image, and emotions can influence your eating habits. CBT is currently recognized as the best treatment for binge eating disorder and is considered a first-line psychological approach for managing emotional eating.
Mindfulness-based interventions (MBT)
These techniques focus on increasing your awareness of your emotions and teaching you how to respond to them without turning to food for comfort. Mindfulness has been found to help with emotional and uncontrolled eating, helping you become more in tune with your emotional needs and cope more effectively.
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)
ACT promotes accepting uncomfortable thoughts and emotions without using food to cope. It helps you face difficult feelings in a healthy way, reducing the urge to rely on food to manage stress or discomfort.
Behavioral weight loss (BWL)
BWL strategies combine diet, exercise, and behavior therapy to help you create lasting, healthy habits. Changing how you interact with food can include practical steps, like portion control, eating regular meals, and practicing mindful eating—chewing slowly and savoring each bite.
BWL also uses tools like self-monitoring, setting achievable goals, and reinforcing progress with positive rewards. By making small, steady changes and staying mindful of your eating habits, you can build a healthier and more sustainable relationship with food.
Seeking professional support through counseling or coaching can help you explore these methods and find the best strategy for you. With time, these approaches can help you break free from emotional eating and build healthier ways to manage your emotions.
Manage emotional eating with Lemonaid Health
Emotional eating is a common way to cope with stress, sadness, boredom, or loneliness, but it can lead to unhealthy habits over time. Techniques, like cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness, acceptance and commitment therapy, and behavioral weight loss, can empower you to take control and develop sustainable habits.
If emotional eating feels overwhelming, you don’t have to face it alone. Get started with help for your weight loss plan by talking to a qualified US-based health professional who can help you find appropriate solutions—including FDA-approved medication in clinically indicated cases.
Interested in the connection between emotional eating and genetics. Learn about the 23andMe Emotional Eating PRS report.
- The 23andMe’s Emotional Eating PRS report is based on a genetic model that includes data and insights from 23andMe consented research participants and incorporates more than 2,000 genetic variants to provide information on the likelihood of developing Emotional Eating. The report does not describe a person’s overall likelihood, does not account for lifestyle or family history and has not been reviewed by the US Food and Drug Administration. The Emotional Eating PRS report is not intended to tell you anything about your current state of health, or to be used to make medical decisions or determine any treatment. For more information visit 23andme.com. ↩︎
