Emotional eating

Emotional eating is defined as overeating in order to relieve negative emotions. Thus, emotional eating is considered a maladaptive coping strategy. If an individual frequently engages in emotional eating, it can increase the risk of developing other eating disorders, like bulimia and anorexia nervosa. Research has also shown that the presence of an existing eating disorder increases the likelihood that an individual will engage in emotional eating. Given the relationship between serious eating disorders and emotional eating behavior, it is important for clinical psychologists and nutritionists to recognize the signs of emotional eating and provide individuals with treatment. Since emotional eating is utilized to manage negative emotions, treatment necessitates learning healthy and more effective coping strategies.

Emotional eating is a form of disordered eating and is defined as "an increase in food intake in response to negative emotions" and can be considered a maladaptive strategy used to cope with difficult feelings. More specifically, emotional eating would qualify as a form of emotion-focused coping, which attempts to minimize, regulate and prevent emotional distress. Interestingly, a study conducted by Bennett et al. found that emotional eating sometimes does not reduce emotional distress but instead enhances emotional distress by sparking feelings of intense guilt after an emotional eating session. Not only is emotional eating a poor way to cope, but those individuals who frequently utilize emotional eating to cope with social or psychological stressors are at an increased risk of developing eating disorders. Emotional eaters are at an especially high risk of developing binge-eating disorder. 2.8% of Americans struggle with binge-eating disorder, which increases their risk of developing cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure. At the same time, the presence of other eating disorders increases the risk of an individual engaging in emotional eating. In a clinical setting, emotional eating disorders can be diagnosed by the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire which contains a scale for restrained, emotional and external eating. While therapists may use positive psychology as a way to reduce the negative emotions that trigger emotional eating, reappraisal is often a complementary treatment with the primary treatment being focused on developing alternative coping strategies.

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