Emotional eating due to depression

Emotional eating refers to the tendency of overeating in response to negative emotion. Emotional eating typically is linked to stress, depression, anxiety, or frustration. The major issue with emotional eating is that people tend to overeat, consume too many calories, and choose foods that are nutrient poor.

A recent qualitative study found that female college students believed that stress was the trigger of their emotional eating behaviors. Both self-report and experimental studies also showed that greater stress levels were associated with greater amount of food (Torres, S., & Nowson, C. (2007). Relationship between stress, eating behavior, and obesity. Nutrition, 23, 887–894).

Stress is a general term for any stimulus, either psychological (affecting the mind) or physiological (affecting the body), that requires a response or adaptation. The human body faces stress daily and even requires a certain amount of stress in order to thrive.

Traumatic events such as losing a job, divorce, the death of a loved one, health problems, and stress at work can lead to emotional eating. Since some foods trigger the release of mood-elevating hormones (chocolate), the body craves these foods when the mind feels down in the dumps.

Emotional Eating affects millions of Americans, including many individuals struggling from depression and bipolar disorder. Emotional Eaters come in all shapes and sizes, ages, races, both males and females.
Emotional eating due to depression