Definition: The consumption of food for reasons other than hunger. People prone to emotional eating may do so more often when stressed, due to cortisol-induced cravings or a perception that food may ease negative emotions.
Emotional eaters tend to focus more on sweets, salty food, or the generally less healthy fare that adds excess weight. Those who want to successfullly cut down or eliminate emotional eating habits generally have to learn more effective ways of managing stress, work on forming new habits, and make other changes.
