Emotional eating

Posted on 9 December 2014

Emotional eaters turn to food not because they’re hungry but to try soothe, suppress or escape negative feelings. Ilsabé Spoelstra, a dietician based at Mediclinic Bloemfontein, explains some of the finer aspects of this disorder.

Would it be correct to assume that it’s mostly women – believed usually to be more emotional by nature than men – who are affected by emotional eating? 

I’m not aware of research on the matter but I believe that there are a lot more male emotional eaters than people realise. I see almost as many men as women for this disorder in my practice. Male patients may not admit it as readily as females would and they’re certainly better at hiding their eating habits: the male metabolism is faster and a man’s physique wouldn’t reveal resulting weight gain as quickly as a woman’s would. But there’s no difference in how the behaviour is typically conditioned from childhood – usually by a role model suggesting food would make our problems go away – nor in how it is treated.

Is there a link between emotional eating and other eating disorders? 

Yes, it could lead to bulimia nervosa. Emotional eating is intertwined with binge eating or compulsive overeating. If someone has a deep-seated fear of becoming overweight, they’re likely to purge after overindulging. This gets out of hand because now there is an ‘easy way out’ and so a vicious cycle starts. The global obsession with dieting doesn’t help either. The harder someone tries to stick to a strict diet, the higher their chance of failure, which leads to feelings of guilt and lowers the self-esteem further – and the risk for emotional eating rises sharply.

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