“Food gives me ‘hugs,'” Ms S* said as her eyes lit up. Finally, after weeks of working together, she could articulate her complex relationship with food. She had been struggling to explain why she continued to eat when she was full or consumed foods she knew wouldn’t help her health.
Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie, MD
Like millions of people struggling with their weight or the disease of obesity, Ms S had tried multiple diets and programs but continued to return to unhelpful eating patterns. Ms S was an emotional eater, and the pandemic only worsened her emotional eating. As a single professional forced to work from home during the pandemic, she became lonely. She went from working in a busy downtown office, training for half-marathons, and teaching live workout sessions to being alone daily. Her only “real” human interaction was when she ordered daily delivery meals of her favorite comfort foods. As a person with type 2 diabetes, she knew that her delivery habit was wrecking her health, but willpower wasn’t enough to make her stop.
Her psychologist referred her to our virtual integrative obesity practice to help her lose weight and find long-term solutions. Ms S admitted that she knew what she was doing as an emotional eater. But like many emotional eaters, she didn’t know why or how to switch from emotional eating to eating based on her biological hunger signals. As a trained obesity expert and recovering emotional eater of 8 years, personally and professionally I can appreciate the challenges of emotional eating and how it can sabotage even the best weight loss plan. In this article, I will share facts and feelings that drive emotional eating. I aim to empower clinicians seeking to help patients with emotional eating.
Fact: Emotional Eating Isn’t All Emotional
It’s important not to dismiss emotional eating as all emotion driven. Recall that hunger is hormonally regulated. There are two main hunger pathways: the homeostatic pathway and the hedonic pathway. The homeostatic pathway is our biological hunger pathway and is driven by the need for energy in calories. Conversely, hedonic eating is pleasure-driven and uses emotional stimuli to “bypass” the physical hunger/satisfaction signals. Emotional eating falls under the hedonic pathway. As clinicians, the first step in helping a patient struggling with emotional eating is empathetically listening, then assessing for any physiologic causes.
Several factors can disrupt physiologic appetite regulation, such as sleep disturbances; high stress levels; and many medical conditions, including but not limited to obesity, diabetes, and polycystic ovarian syndrome. Such factors as insulin resistance and inflammation are a common link in these conditions. Both contribute to the pathophysiology of the changes in appetite and can influence other hormones that lead to reduced satisfaction after eating. Furthermore, mental health conditions may disrupt levels of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine, which can also cause appetite changes.
These settings of physiologically disrupted appetite can trigger hedonic eating. But the relationship is complex. For example, one way to research hedonic eating is by using the Power of Food Scale. Functional MRI studies show that people with higher Power of Food Scale readings have more brain activity in the visual cortex when they see highly palatable foods. While more studies are needed to better understand the clinical implications of this finding, it’s yet another indicator that “emotional” eating isn’t all emotional. It’s also physiologic.
Feelings: Patterns, Personality, Places, Psychological Factors
Physiology only explains part of emotional eating. Like Ms S, emotional eaters have strong emotional connections to food and behavior patterns. Often, physiologic cues have been coupled with psychological habits. For example, menses is a common physiologic trigger for stress-eating for many of my patients. Studies have shown that in addition to iron levels changing during menses, calcium, magnesium, and phosphorous levels also change. Emotionally, the discomfort of “that time of the month” can lead to solace in comfort foods such as chocolate in different forms. But this isn’t surprising, as cacao and its derivative, chocolate, are rich in iron and other minerals. The chocolate is actually addressing a physical and emotional need. It can be helpful to point out this association to your patients. Suggest choosing a lower-sugar form of chocolate, such as dark chocolate, or even trying cacao nibs, while addressing any emotions.
But physiologic conditions and patterns aren’t the only emotional eating triggers. Places and psychological conditions can also trigger emotional eating.
Places and people. Celebrations, vacations, proximity to certain restaurants, exposure to food marketing, and major life shifts can lead to increased hedonic eating. Helping patients recognize this connection opens the door to advance preparation for these situations.
Psychological conditions can be connected to emotional eating. It’s important to screen for mental health conditions and past traumas. For example, emotional eating could be a symptom of binge eating disorder, major depression, or generalized anxiety disorder. Childhood trauma is associated with disordered eating. The adverse childhood events quiz can be used clinically.
Emotional eating can lead to feelings of guilt, shame, and negative self-talk. It’s helpful to offer patients reassurance and encourage self-compassion. After all, it’s natural to eat. The goal isn’t to stop eating but to eat on the basis of physiologic needs.
Putting It Together: Addressing the Facts and Feelings of Emotional Eating
1 .Treat biological causes that impact physiologic hunger and trigger emotional eating.
2. Triggers: Address patterns, places/people, psychological events.
3. Transition to non-food rewards; the key to emotional eating is eating. While healthier substitutes can be a short-term solution for improving eating behaviors, ultimately, helping patients find non-food ways to address emotions is invaluable.
4. Stress management: Offer your patients ways to decrease stress levels through mindfulness and other techniques.
5. Professional support: Creating a multidisciplinary team is helpful, given the complexity of emotional eating. In addition to the primary care physician/clinician, other team members may include:
Back to Ms S
Ms S is doing well. We started her on a GLP-1 agonist to address her underlying insulin resistance. Together we’ve found creative ways to satisfy her loneliness, such as volunteering and teaching virtual workout classes. Her emotional eating has decreased by over 60% and we continue to discover new strategies to address her emotional eating triggers.
Conclusion
Despite being common, the impact of emotional eating is often minimized. With no DSM-5 criteria or ICD-11 code, it’s easy to dismiss emotional eating clinically. However, emotional eating is common and associated with weight gain. In light of the obesity epidemic, this significance can’t be overlooked. Thankfully we have groundbreaking medications to address the homeostatic hunger pathway and physiologic drivers of emotional eating, but they’re not a substitute for addressing the psychosocial components of emotional eating. As clinicians, we can have a meaningful impact on our patients’ lives beyond writing a prescription.
* Name/initial changed for privacy.
Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie, MD, DipABOM, is an integrative obesity specialist focused on individualized solutions for emotional and biological overeating. Connect with her at www.embraceyouweightloss.com or on Instagram @embraceyoumd. Her bestselling book, Embrace You: Your Guide to Transforming Weight Loss Misconceptions Into Lifelong Wellness, was Healthline.com’s Best Overall Weight Loss Book of 2022 and one of Livestrong.com’s 8 Best Weight-Loss Books to Read in 2022.
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