It’s easy to confuse emotional hunger (the craving for food caused by emotions like stress, sadness, or boredom) with physical hunger (when your body is low on energy). Most people find the former much more difficult to resist than the latter but also have a hard time distinguishing between “true” hunger and “emotional” hunger.
In a physiological sense, hunger is a signal that your body’s energy stores are low, and you need to replenish them by eating something. But eating is also something people do for pleasure and, sometimes, to relieve stress. The latter is called emotional eating and it’s a common cause of weight gain and mental health issues. The emotional eater also struggles with the frustrations and guilt of not being able to overcome the problem.
Emotional eating can be triggered by life circumstances, boredom, loneliness, negative moods, grief, anger, and frustration. The most common foods people munch on during emotional eating are sugary treats, chocolate, chips, or even junk food. Why? It is often easier to eat something that temporarily creates pleasure than to deal with the feelings that triggered the emotional hunger. Let’s look at some of the ways true hunger differs from emotional hunger.
Emotional Hunger is Often Sudden in Onset
True hunger is often a slow process. As your body senses that your fuel stores are low, it sends hunger signals in a gradual, controlled manner. Your body doesn’t typically do things in a fast, uncontrolled manner. So, be suspicious of hunger that comes on suddenly, as it’s more likely to be hunger brought on by emotions, stress, or boredom.
Emotional hunger is usually triggered by an unconscious thought, emotion, or stressful circumstance and causes a sudden desire to eat something. You want immediate gratification. You won’t think about ice cream at 9 a.m. and then wait until noon to eat it. You want it now.
Emotional Hunger Favors Certain Foods
One characteristic of emotional hunger is the desire to eat certain types of foods, usually those high in sugar or fat. Gender may play a role too. Women are more likely to experience emotional hunger and crave sugary foods, but men with emotional or stress-related hunger often crave salty foods, like chips.
One way dietitians tell people to distinguish between emotional hunger and real hunger is to ask whether an apple would be satisfying. If it’s real hunger, an apple will sound appealing because it’s a source of energy. If you’re emotionally hungry, the apple won’t be satisfying since it doesn’t supply the sugar, fat, or salt that satisfies emotional hunger.
Emotional Hunger is Independent of How Full You Are
Since emotional hunger isn’t related to your body’s energy reserves, it can come on even after you’ve eaten a big meal. Emotional hunger doesn’t respect how full your stomach might be or what time of day it is. It’s independent of your fuel stores and how full they are. True hunger resolves once your energy stores are filled.
Eating Doesn’t Bring about Peace When It’s Emotional Hunger
If your body’s energy stores are low and you have real hunger, eating resolves the issue. You feel full and satisfied. But if it’s emotional hunger, eating may create feelings of guilt at having eaten unhealthy foods. The sense of satisfaction and tranquility that comes from eating to satisfy an emotional need is usually short-lived and often creates secondary guilt.
Emotional Eating Doesn’t Come with the Classic Signs of True Hunger
When you’re hungry because your energy stores are low, those hunger pangs come with other signs and symptoms that you need foods. You may feel weak or tired. Your stomach might rumble, or growl and you get that gnawing feeling of your stomach being empty. If you’ve gone a long time without eating, you might feel a little brain fog too. Those symptoms are usually absent when you’re trying to satisfy emotional hunger.
Taming Emotional Hunger
Controlling emotional hunger isn’t easy. Just as it is hard to change other types of emotions, such as anger or sadness, it is not easy to vanquish emotional hunger. The key is to identify and confront the emotions that trigger emotional hunger and find healthier ways to deal with them.
You can do this by pausing before eating something and write down your thoughts and feelings at the time, along with things that are bothering you. By identifying and confronting the triggers, they lose their power over you.
Stress management techniques, like exercise, deep breathing, and meditation can help you better deal with stress, but some people may need short-term therapy to understand and confront the emotions that trigger emotional hunger.
The Bottom Line
Emotional hunger differs from true hunger, and you can learn to recognize the difference. When you feel the urge to eat something, stop, question, and evaluate the situation. Ask these questions:
- Did the hunger come on suddenly?
- What were you thinking about or feeling at the time?
- Will a bland food, like an apple, satisfy that hunger?
- How long has it been since you’ve eaten?
- Do you have the classic signs of hunger?
The more in tune you become with your true hunger signals, the more you’ll be able to distinguish hunger that arises from emotions from hunger which means your body needs more energy. That’s the first step toward overcoming emotional eating. It takes time to master the art of listening to your body but the effort it takes is worth it.
References:
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- Yau YH, Potenza MN. Stress and eating behaviors. Minerva Endocrinol. 2013 Sep;38(3):255-67. PMID: 24126546; PMCID: PMC4214609.
- Jalo E, Konttinen H, Vepsäläinen H, Chaput JP, Hu G, Maher C, Maia J, Sarmiento OL, Standage M, Tudor-Locke C, Katzmarzyk PT, Fogelholm M. Emotional Eating, Health Behaviours, and Obesity in Children: A 12-Country Cross-Sectional Study. Nutrients. 2019 Feb 7;11(2):351. doi: 10.3390/nu11020351. PMID: 30736444; PMCID: PMC6412589.
- MacCormack JK, Lindquist KA. Feeling hangry? When hunger is conceptualized as emotion. Emotion. 2019 Mar;19(2):301-319. doi: 10.1037/emo0000422. Epub 2018 Jun 11. PMID: 29888934.
- “Why do people eat when they are bored? | SiOWfa15: Science ….” 22 Oct. 2015, cormssites.psu.edu/siowfa15/2015/10/22/why-do-people-eat-when-they-are-bored/.
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