Emotional hunger needs satisfaction just like physical hunger. However, poor eating habits don’t fix emotional problems. Food science experts explored how unique psychological and physical health correlates to emotional eating types and discovered that adults who eat emotionally with negative feelings have greater eating disorder symptoms than those who eat with positive emotions.

Eating emotionally out of negative emotions such as anger, anxiety, boredom, or depression is an unhealthy cycle as it could lead to eating more than you should. Moreover, the guilt from overeating could further impact your mental state. Thus, you risk developing eating disorders, which are mental health issues that severely affect physical and psychological functions. Here is a closer look at emotional eating and 10 healthy alternatives to this mental health disorder.

What Is Emotional Eating?

Emotional eating is the act of consuming food to fulfill an emotional need, as opposed to eating for physical satisfaction. Also known as stress eating and mindless eating, many people use food to cope with the difficult emotional and mental states that they experience.

Eating because of stress is a common problem in America, with 38% of adults having reported episodes of stress eating in the past month. At the same time, 49% reported overeating or eating unhealthy food out of stress weekly.

Why Should I Stop Emotional Eating?

Emotional eating can lead to unhealthy eating habits and weight gain. You could turn to food as your default coping mechanism whenever you experience negative feelings. When your sadness or stress is chronic, the risk of gaining unwanted weight becomes greater.

Meanwhile, the International Journal of Eating Disorders lists emotional eating under the associations of eating behaviors related to obesity. Other activities included binge eating and unhealthy dietary intake, and eating in response to food cravings.

Seeing the effects after you eat food in response to negative emotions would only worsen your nutritional state and put your health at risk. Here are some strategies to control food cravings when negative emotions trigger emotional eating.

1. Identify What Is Causing You To Eat Emotionally

Paying attention to your feelings is a valuable skill even outside of emotional eating. For instance, you decide to eat because you are feeling sad. Once you recognize the sadness, you can take a step back and assess what brought on the sadness in the first place. “Eating your feelings” offers only temporary relief. It's okay to feel sad, but it's even better to address it.

When you know what you are feeling, you can try practicing opposite action. Opposite action is a skill in dialectical behavior therapy where you actively choose to respond to an emotion with the opposite of what you would normally do. With sadness, your initial response may be to isolate, so you get bored and then reach for a snack. Its opposite action may be socializing.

2. Find Your Favorite Foods, But Improve the Quality

It makes sense to eat when you are feeling stressed or sad. When your body produces cortisol or the stress hormone, you crave salty, sweet, and fried food to give you an energy boost. You can continue eating to get the happy hormones your body needs but find high-quality versions.

When you know what your comfort food is, be mindful of what it is made of. When you discover that it has a lot of unhealthy ingredients, replace it with a healthier option. For example, if you love fries, try baking them instead or use more stable fats to fry like beef tallow. Further, fill up on protein and fat, go not go for low fat or low calorie options if they truly do not satisfy you. Lastly, eat with pleasure. Savor the moment, the taste of whatever it is you decide to eat. Choose to experience your eating time similar to a meditation, after your bite: eyes closed, calm and slow.

3. Read a Good Book

If you find yourself craving food out of boredom, try grabbing a book to nourish your mind instead. You could finish a book that you have been meaning to for weeks or find a new one in your to-read stash.

You might also want to try reading a nutrition guide if you are actively making changes to your dietary habits. One example is the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Complete Food and Nutrition Guide by Roberta Larson Duyff, which experts use as a reference for reaching and maintaining a healthy weight.

4. Watch a TV Program or Film

Switch out emotional eating with an activity that you enjoy like watching TV or putting on a movie. You might find a comedy show on the air that can activate the happy hormones that your body needs instead of getting them from food.

Consider watching a movie that might make you cry if you are feeling sad. Professionals at the British Psychological Society highlighted a study stating that people enjoy sad films because sadness enhances the reality they perceive and gives them a sense of involvement.

5. Speak to a Friend

Calling a friend or connecting with them online can be a great way to distract yourself from emotional eating. You could express your emotions to them and listen to them share theirs in return to help each other get through whatever might be troubling you together.

You can also take it further by going for a brisk walk together. That way, you get to move your body and take in some fresh air while you offload your emotions to someone you can count on for support.

6. Join a Support Group

You can join a support group if you feel like speaking to a friend might not be enough. Perhaps you would feel more comfortable expressing to someone who has gone through or is going through what you are.

That way, you can hear from someone with first-hand experience on how they handle their appetite when going through negative feelings. You can then get tips from their perspectives and try their methods the next time you get emotionally hungry.

7. Play Your Favorite Outdoor Sport

Shooting hoops, playing soccer, or going for a game of tennis can be an effective way to distract yourself from acting on your emotional hunger. Any physical activity can release endorphins, which are the brain’s feel-good neurotransmitters that have direct benefits in reducing stress.

Getting active with your friends or support group can also improve your mood. Try scheduling weekly games with a core group, so you have something to look forward to when you feel bad.

8. Indulge Your Sentimentality