Emotional Eating: Causes, Triggers, And Solutions
Jul 22, 2025 • 9 min read
Published on July 22, 2025 | Update on July 21, 2025
July 22, 2025
PhD in Clinical Psychology, CBT and DBT certified through PESI
Table of Contents
Have you ever reached for a snack even though you just ate? Or found yourself turning to food when you’re overwhelmed, bored, or anxious? If so, you’re not alone—and those moments can be signs of emotional eating.
This isn’t just your personal struggle either. In fact, about 74.6% of American adults have tried to lose weight at some point, and emotional eating often plays a role in that journey. The good news? It’s not about a lack of willpower or personal failure. Emotional eating is tied to complex neurobiological and psychological processes—how our brains and bodies respond to stress, emotions, and past experiences.
Even better: researchers have studied emotional eating extensively. That means you can actually learn what causes it, recognize common triggers, and use science-backed strategies to build a healthier relationship with food.
Put simply, emotional eating is when someone eats in response to feelings rather than physical hunger.
In these moments, people often crave highly palatable, calorie-dense foods—think chips, chocolate, or ice cream. It’s not because the body needs fuel—it’s because the brain is seeking comfort.
Why? From a young age, food often becomes emotionally loaded. Think about how babies are soothed by a bottle or breastfed when upset. Food gets linked not just to nourishment, but also to calming, bonding, and a sense of security.
From a neurological standpoint, eating stimulates the release of dopamine and serotonin, brain chemicals that influence:
Because of this, food can temporarily ease negative emotions. But that relief is usually short-lived, and it’s often followed by guilt or regret. Unfortunately, those feelings can trigger a new emotional eating cycle, making it harder to break the habit. Over time, this can contribute to yo-yo dieting.
So, while people often say “I’m just eating my feelings,” emotional eating is more than that. It’s a blend of learned behaviors, emotional conditioning, and hormonal feedback loops. Understanding how these layers work together makes it easier to see why emotional eating is so tough to resist, even when you’re not truly hungry.
In everyday conversation, people often use “emotional eating” and “comfort eating” like they mean the same thing. But there’s an important distinction. Emotional eating tends to feel compulsive and hard to control, while comfort eating is usually intentional and occasional, like grabbing mac and cheese after a tough day.
So, while a comfort meal might not check every “healthy eating” box, it’s not necessarily a problem. It doesn’t form a consistent pattern or create distress. Emotional eating, however, can become habitual, often leading to distress or a loss of control.
We’ve already touched on one piece of the puzzle: food can be soothing. But let’s go deeper into the chemistry behind emotional eating—because your cravings aren’t just emotional; they’re biological, too.
A major player in this equation is cortisol, one of the body’s primary stress hormones. When you’re stressed or emotionally low, cortisol levels rise, and that can change not just your mood but also how your body craves food. Research shows that people who have strong cortisol reactions tend to eat more after stressful events, especially craving sugary or high-fat foods.
Then there’s dopamine, the brain’s reward chemical. Eating high-calorie foods activates dopamine pathways, creating a brief emotional high—a “feel-good” rush that your brain wants to repeat. But that high fades quickly, often followed by a crash. Over time, this can lead to a cycle of chasing that short-lived pleasure. People with lower baseline dopamine levels or heightened sensitivity may be more vulnerable to this cycle.
But the food-mood connection goes even further, right down to your gut. About 95% of your body’s serotonin is produced in the gut, not the brain. This means your digestive system plays a major role in emotional well-being. This link, known as the gut-brain axis, explains why stress and poor eating habits often go hand-in-hand.
Lastly, let’s look at the evolutionary angle. Our ancestors evolved to seek out calorie-dense foods during times of stress or threat—a survival instinct when food was scarce. But in today’s world, where snacks are always within reach and stress is constant, that same instinct can backfire.
There are many reasons why someone might turn to food for comfort, but some triggers show up more consistently than others, especially boredom. Let’s break down five of the most common emotional eating triggers and how they might show up in your daily life.
Boredom isn’t just about having nothing to do or being stuck in a dull routine—it can also stem from a lack of direction or avoiding uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. For many, boredom represents an emotional restlessness that food temporarily quiets. Because it’s so emotionally nuanced, boredom is one of the most consistently reported emotional eating triggers across all age groups and backgrounds. When we don’t know what we’re feeling—or don’t want to feel it—we often reach for something distracting, like food.
We’ve already mentioned cortisol, but it’s worth repeating: chronic stress doesn’t just trigger emotional eating—it can biologically reinforce it. When stress is persistent, cortisol levels remain high, increasing cravings for high-fat, high-sugar comfort foods. This leads to a self-reinforcing loop: stress drives cravings, eating brings momentary relief, and guilt or shame adds more stress. Over time, this cycle becomes deeply ingrained.
Women in particular show higher rates of stress-induced eating, possibly due to hormonal differences and social conditioning around emotional expression and coping.
This category overlaps with stress but dives deeper into how specific feelings can prompt eating as a coping mechanism. Common emotional triggers include:
In these emotional states, food often becomes a form of self-soothing or escape. Instead of confronting painful feelings, people may use eating to numb or avoid them. Research shows women are more likely than men to report eating in response to emotions like sadness and anger, highlighting a gendered pattern in emotional regulation strategies.
Not everyone experiences trauma in the same way, but it often leaves a long-lasting imprint on emotional regulation. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), such as neglect, abuse, or household instability, are strongly linked to emotional eating in adulthood. Interestingly, research suggests that different types of childhood adversity may correlate with different eating behaviors, with emotional neglect showing the strongest link.
These early experiences can shape how individuals respond to emotions later in life, making food a learned form of comfort or self-protection.
Food is everywhere, and it often holds social and emotional meaning. Think birthday cake at a party, comfort food during the holidays, or reward-based treats growing up. These emotionally charged settings can set the stage for emotional eating, especially if food has long been associated with comfort or connection.
Beyond social settings, your environment plays a subtle but powerful role. Certain cues—like sitting on the couch at night, walking into the kitchen out of habit, or being around specific people—can all trigger eating behaviors without you even realizing it.
Even though emotional eating is influenced by biology and psychology, it’s not something you’re stuck with forever. There may not be a one-size-fits-all solution, but the following are some of the most effective, evidence-based strategies—and they can be used on their own or combined for even better results.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the most well-researched approaches for addressing emotional eating. CBT helps you:
This method takes practice, but it helps you retrain how your brain responds to emotional discomfort, one thought or habit at a time.
Mindfulness teaches you to recognize the difference between physical hunger and emotional urges as they happen. The goal is to stay present without judgment and bring full awareness to the eating experience. Mindful eating practices include:
You can also use body scan techniques to tune into where emotions show up in the body, helping you respond with awareness rather than impulse.
This strategy helps you reduce your body’s baseline stress so you’re not as triggered to eat in the first place. It also supports other methods by improving your emotional resilience. Helpful tools include:
These strategies regulate your nervous system, making emotional cravings feel less intense and more manageable.
Changing your eating habits over time can amount to greater, long-lasting success. These strategies help reduce exposure to triggers and build healthier habits over time:
You don’t have to do this alone. If emotional eating feels deeply rooted or overwhelming, professional help can make all the difference. Think of it as a strength—not a failure—to ask for support. Options include:
A skilled provider can help you connect the dots between emotions and eating—and guide you toward long-term healing.
To wrap it up, emotional eating isn’t a personal failure—it’s a common, biologically rooted coping strategy that many people turn to during stress, sadness, or overwhelm. While it may be wired into your body’s response system, it’s absolutely something you can shift with awareness, self-compassion, and the right support.
One of the most important steps in overcoming emotional eating is to identify your emotional triggers, then match them with strategies that support both your inner experience and your environment. Remember: healing isn’t about perfection. It’s about progress, patience, and knowing when to reach for professional guidance.
Breaking free from emotional eating doesn’t require a radical diet overhaul or quick weight loss. Instead, it’s about changing how you respond to life’s emotional highs and lows—and learning new ways to care for yourself in the process.
This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not address individual circumstances. It is not a substitute for professional advice or help and should not be relied on to make decisions of any kind. Any action you take upon the information presented in this article is strictly at your own risk and responsibility!
