After a stressful day at work, do your thoughts turn to your favorite comfort food—like a juicy cheeseburger and fries—for dinner? When you’re feeling down, do you reach for a bowl of ice cream? Or, if you’re anxious, do you grab a handful of chocolate candies?
You’re not alone if food feels like a safety net when unpleasant or negative emotions hit. According to the American Psychological Association, nearly 40 percent of adults say they grapple with emotional eating at least once a month. Reaching for (usually unhealthy) food now and then isn’t necessarily a problem. But when it becomes the norm, you may find yourself in a cycle where your eating habits and mental health start to impact your overall well-being, cause unwanted weight gain, and even challenge your ability to manage diet-influenced conditions such as high blood pressure and cholesterol.
Understanding the connection between food and your emotional health is important, says Travis Wheeler, MD, a primary care provider at The Christ Hospital Physicians-Primary Care.
“If you’ve noticed a connection between your eating and mental or emotional state, it’s vital to talk with your doctor—particularly if you’ve never really experienced these feelings before,” he says. “Unless what you’re feeling is linked to a particular episode or event in your life, we’re probably not going to be able to make these concerns go away. But we can certainly find ways to treat and manage the relationship between your emotions and eating.”
Here, Dr. Wheeler offers some insights into the food-emotional health connection, how that relationship may impact the way you feel about your body and how to minimize that effect.
The emotional eating-emotional health connection
Science doesn’t fully understand why we’re drawn to unhealthy foods when we’re feeling negative emotions, Dr. Wheeler says. But a new study published in the International Journal of Obesity confirms that the relationship exists. And it’s bidirectional. That means emotional eating contributes to body dissatisfaction and mental health struggles. And at the same time, being unhappy with your body or experiencing stress, anxiety or depression can lead to more emotional eating.
Negative emotions are at the center of this cycle. They can make you feel like you have little control of your life. Eating a sweet treat or comfort food at the end of a hard day can make you feel like you’ve reclaimed some control. But junk food can also leave you feeling sluggish and rundown or even worse emotionally—which can lead to other unwanted physical outcomes.
“Eating unhealthy foods often leads to weight gain. And, for many people, gaining weight harms your body image. You don’t feel like you look good,” he says. “So, you’re probably going to be less inclined to engage in social activities
or go out with friends. It’s a vicious circle. You feel unhappy, so you don’t eat well or exercise, which leads to more discontent and poor food choices. You’re left feeling stuck on an endless cycle.”
Dr. Wheeler compares this cycle to a traffic roundabout. Negative emotions and eating are the two main lanes. Financial constraints, lack of sleep, not enough exercise, poor nutrition and weight gain are other on-ramps that can lead into these lanes. Once you merge these factors, it can be difficult to find an exit and escape emotional eating.
Ways to manage the emotional eating-mental health cycle
It may be a challenge to find your off-ramp from the roundabout. But there are things you can do to better understand when and why your emotional eating urge kicks in. Dr. Wheeler recommends:
Focusing on how you feel after you eat certain foods
Identifying specific emotions that drive you to eat
Paying attention to certain times of day when your emotional eating desire is strongest
When you know more about how emotional eating affects you, Dr. Wheeler says these behaviors can help reduce the impact it has on your emotional and physical well-being:
Changing your activity (like going for a walk or talking to co-workers) when the emotional eating urge strikes
Choosing fresh foods and avoiding packaged products as much as possible
Drinking more water to avoid feeling sluggish or tired
Getting more exercise – even frequent easy activities are a positive change
Practicing better sleep habits (avoiding screens before bed, having a set bedtime, sleeping in cooler temperatures)
Managing medication-related weight gain
Medication is one of the most common treatments for anxiety and depression. But some prescriptions can also cause weight gain. As a result, many people who struggle with emotional eating resist taking them because they fear putting on more pounds, Dr. Wheeler says.
Managing medication-related weight gain
Medication is one of the most common treatments for anxiety and depression. But some prescriptions can also cause weight gain. As a result, many people who struggle with emotional eating resist taking them because they fear putting on more pounds, Dr. Wheeler says.
Fortunately, many medication options are weight-neutral—they won’t lead to a higher number on the scale, especially if you pair them with exercise. The secret is working with your healthcare provider to find the right one for you.
In fact, Dr. Wheeler says taking medication for anxiety or depression may have a positive impact on your weight.
“You may be gaining weight because your uncontrolled anxiety has triggered a fair amount of emotional eating,” he says. “Taking medication to help control your mental health concerns may, in and of itself, help curb the urge to eat. It can help balance things out.”
Embrace the journey head-on
If you’re struggling with emotional eating or recognize that your emotions trigger certain food choices, take the first step and schedule a visit with your primary care provider, Dr. Wheeler says. Above all, he says it’s important to understand that battling emotional eating is a long-distance journey. You will likely experience setbacks. But stay focused on the positive changes and progress you’re making.
“Remember that you’re human. Dealing with emotional eating and mental health isn’t like any other kind of disease management. Treating it isn’t going to be straightforward,” he says. “Making changes is difficult, and none of us do it perfectly. So, be kind to yourself, give yourself some grace and stick with it.”