Emotional Eating

Emotional eating is fairly natural and perfectly normal. Eating for comfort is a natural human response and perfectly ok.

Comfort eating and emotional eating is often only a problem when it becomes the only way of coping with stressors and uncomfortable emotions. When this happens, further emotions are elicited, such as a sense of guilt or shame about the foods and the amounts of foods eaten. These deep feelings of shame and embarrassment lead to feelings of hopelessness and low mood, which can trigger even more ‘over-eating’ responses in order to cope with these emotions. This often results in people becoming trapped in a vicious cycle, resulting in eating more to deal with these unbearable emotions.

Unfortunately, many people try to solve this problem through dieting, however, this generally tends to be unsuccessful. This is because the problem is not the food, but learning to regulate underlying emotions. People often seek help when experiencing some of the following:

Loss of control over eating
Weight gain/worries about weight fluctuations
Secret eating / night-time eating
Feelings of shame, guilt, disgust
Self-critical thoughts/low mood
Irritability
Obsessive thoughts/cravings
Social withdrawal
Low self esteem
Restriction/dieting not working

What is the difference between binge eating and emotional eating?

Emotional eating and binge eating are two separate entities, however they are often linked in those who use food in a pathological (destructive) way to relieve uncomfortable emotions.

Emotional eating is eating which is carried out in response to an emotional experience, rather than in response to physiological cues signalling hunger. Emotional eating is not always negative, as seen in celebrations such as birthday parties, where food plays a central role. In evolutionary terms, food also plays a role in social bonding. Sharing food develops a social contract with others in the hope they will share their resources with us, and vice versa. It is such sharing of essential resources which has helped humans survive as long as we have (Jaeggi et al 2011). This explains why we, as social animals, enjoy “breaking bread” with other people. Emotions and food are deeply linked - after all, food is what keeps us alive and is vital to our existence. Being soothed by food goes back to our first days of life, when our mothers’ provide milk to soothe our crying. The relief of hunger brings about positive emotions and facilitates the bond between mother and child. This is where the association between food and positive emotions begins (Smith et al 1990). In itself, emotional eating is part of the social world and is not generally a cause for concern.

Conversely, binge eating is generally pathological and occurs as a behavioural coping mechanism in response to negative emotional experiences. We’ve established that eating tasty food is enjoyable, and the act can cheer us up (see Ben and Jerry above!). Therefore, logically, eating can act as an antidote to sadness. However, binge eating is unique as it requires the consumption of an excessive amount of calories in one sitting, for example 2000kcal in one meal. Rather than this being one indulgent meal as a treat, it is a compulsive behaviour which the subject carries out for the specific purpose of binging. Emotional comfort may be found in the initial state of the binge, however this sense of relief is short lived. Bingeing in this way leads to physical discomfort, nausea and weight gain which we would not associate with occasional overeating. It is a recurring pathological pattern with detrimental outcomes both physically and psychologically.

Struggling with emotional eating? Here are some options:

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References
Smith B. A., Fillion T. J., Blass E. M. (1990). Orally mediated sources of calming in 1-day-old to 3-day-old human infants. Dev. Psychol. 26 731–737
Jaeggi A. V, Van Schaik C. P. (2011). The evolution of food sharing in primates. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 65 2125–2140