Food has the power to temporarily assuage stress and sadness, boost happiness, and bring us comfort when we need it most. It should come as no surprise that experts estimate 75 percent of overeating is triggered by our emotions, not physical hunger. According to Ohio psychologist Susan Albers, Psy.
D., we can learn to soothe ourselves through dozens of mindful activities that are healthy for both body and mind. Humans are biologically designed to find food soothing; it is a built-in survival mechanism which most of us find pleasurable and enjoyable.
As children, we have limited abilities to self-soothe since our brains are still developing; eating for comfort at times is therefore something we learn early on in life. To occasionally use food to lift our spirits as adults is most likely not much of an issue; using it consistently for comfort, though, can keep us from addressing an underlying emotional need. Stress eating becomes problematic when it is the only coping skill used to handle uncomfortable emotions.
Studies have shown that people who feel conflicted about their eating habits may link any overeating behavior to stress or emotion only after they’ve already eaten, regardless of whether their patterns differ much from people who don’t identify as emotional eaters. Former and current dieters, interestingly, are more likely to eat in response to visual food cues as well as to describe themselves as stress eaters. Folks who have never dieted are more likely to avoid fo.