Emotional eating seems to be almost a loaded phrase in our society today. While many of us eat for non-hunger related reasons at some point in our lives, diagnoses of emotional eating are harder to pinpoint. However, psychologists are reporting a growing trend in cases of emotional eating and are connecting it with our growing obesity rates. For example, studies suggest that individuals who are overweight and obese may be more likely than normal weight people to use food as a coping mechanism.
So the question becomes, if you find yourself eating for emotion- or stress-related reasons, how can you stop? When someone tells me they’re an emotional eater, I ask three questions:
1)     When do you emotionally eat? Is there a time of day that it strikes? For most people, the answer seems to be afternoon and evening. Although some people report nighttime eating – they will actually wake up and go eat in the middle of the night.
2)     What do you eat? Emotional eaters tend to crave one of four things in my experience: high fat foods (e.g., Fried chicken, Sausage, Hot dog, Fried fish, Bacon, Steak), Sweets (e.g., Cake, Cinnamon Rolls, Ice cream, Cookies, Chocolate, Donuts, Candy, Brownies), Complex Carbohydrates (e.g., Sandwich bread, Rice, Biscuits, Pasta, Pancakes or Waffles, Rolls, Cereal), or Fast Food (e.g., Pizza, French fries, Hamburger, Chips). Sweets and Carbs seem to top that list, as do a combination of Sweet and Fat (e.g., Oreos).
