Have you ever felt a loss of control over your eating behaviour, particularly when feeling stressed, anxious or sad? It is more common to experience a loss of control when negative emotions are dominant. You may feel the urge to eat even when you are not hungry. This is referred to in the literature as emotional eating. However, we cannot label emotional eating as a disorder in itself. In fact, emotional eating is seen as something that most people may experience. A person may exhibit eating behaviour in order to suppress or alleviate their emotions. In this case, the person exhibits eating behaviour not to satisfy their hunger, but to try to regulate their emotions.
Definition Of Emotional Eating
Emotional eating is a situation that arises solely due to emotional stress, without any feeling of hunger, i.e. without any physical symptoms. Coping with emotional hunger seems much more difficult than coping with physiological hunger because sometimes the person may not even realise that their hunger stems from their emotions. A person may experience bouts of eating in an emotional context. Contrary to popular belief, emotional eating does not only stem from negative emotions. However, it is noted that bouts of eating usually arise due to intense anger and unhappiness. As I mentioned earlier, emotional eating is not a disorder or condition in itself, but if this eating behaviour persists or turns into binge eating, it may be referred to as ‘Emotional Eating Disorder’.
Relationship With Eating Disorders
Emotional eating has often been associated with eating disorders such as Bulimia Nervosa. It has also been clearly observed that it may be related to Binge Eating Disorder. Emotional eating can stem from both negative and positive emotions. Emotions such as anger, stress, and anxiety are examples of negative emotions that lead to emotional eating, while emotions such as pleasure and happiness are examples of positive emotions that lead to emotional eating. It has been observed that individuals turn to sweet and sugary foods when they feel happy and content, and the purpose of this tendency has been identified as seeking pleasure from eating. It has also been observed that individuals exhibit impulsive eating behaviour when they feel angry. The preference for unhealthy foods and snacks has been described as an attempt to distract oneself from intense emotions (Wallis and Hetherington, 2009). Research has also shown that fatty and carbohydrate-rich foods are consumed as effective foods for short-term emotion regulation and stress reduction (Bozan, 2009).
Demographics and Risk Groups
It can be assumed that obese individuals frequently engage in emotional eating behaviour due to their high-fat and carbohydrate-rich diets. However, emotional eating is not exclusive to obese individuals; it can also be observed in individuals of normal weight, those on diets, or those concerned about weight gain. Therefore, it would be incorrect to evaluate emotional eating behaviour from a single perspective. This is because emotional eating encompasses different age ranges, genders, and emotional, social, and psychological dimensions. Examining these dimensions, we can identify certain risk groups for emotional eating. Adolescents, children, obese individuals, and individuals with psychological problems can be considered risk groups. Emotional eating is more common during adolescence because stress and anxiety make adolescents more susceptible to negative emotions. Compared to adults and children, concerns about appearance are cited as an important factor in the emergence of emotional eating or eating disorder behaviours. This is because adolescents tend to experience more concerns about their appearance.
Impact On Quality Of Life
Depression and anxiety can also manifest as increased or decreased appetite. Eating disorders accompanied by these psychological symptoms disrupt individuals’ psychosocial adjustment and lead to a significant decline in quality of life. In conclusion, emotional eating is generally defined as exhibiting excessive eating behaviour in response to negative emotions. It has also been observed that this leads to negative physical and psychological consequences. Furthermore, it is possible to say that certain emotions lead to emotional eating behaviour. These emotions can be listed as anger, anxiety, stress, unhappiness and happiness. We have noted that stress, anger, and happiness affect food choices in different ways. Therefore, it is not wrong to say that our emotions directly influence our eating habits. In this article, we can recognise the importance of regulating and controlling our emotions. Our emotions are important factors in the flow of our lives, and we need to understand this from the way they are reflected in our eating habits. Remember that emotional eating behaviour can negatively affect us physically and psychologically, and do not forget to look at your emotional eating behaviour from different angles.
References
Bozan, N. (2009). Testing the Validity and Reliability of the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (DEBQ) in Turkish University Students (Unpublished Master’s Thesis), Başkent University, Ankara.
Mcatamney, K., Mantzios, M., Egan, H., & Wallis, D. J. (2021). Emotional eating during COVID-19 in the United Kingdom: exploring the roles of alexithymia and emotion dysregulation. Appetite, 161, 105120.
Okonishnikova, E., Bryukhin, A., & Lineva, T. (2018). Dysmorphophobic disorders in patients with eating disorders. Psychiatria Danubina, 30(Suppl. 1), 47-47.
Wallis, D. J. and Hetherington, M. M. (2009). Emotions and Eating. Self-reported and Experimentally Induced Changes in Food Intake Under Stress. Appetite, 52(2), 355–362.