Binge, boredom, mindless, and stress eating are all forms of emotional eating. Emotional
eating is widespread and yet people know very little about it besides the basic definition:
eating out of emotion. More specifically, emotional eating is eating in response to stress,
other negative emotional triggers, or any other cue than physiological hunger. When
emotional eaters experience these negative feelings, they choose to turn to food for
comfort instead of family members, friends, physical exercise, or another outlet to help
them cope with their emotions. This condition, when left unidentified and untreated, can
impede any successful weight management program and seem incurable. However,
emotional eating can be overcome by going through the process of learning to cope
without using food, otherwise known as being an intuitive or “normal” eater.
Emotional eating is a major problem for women, especially young women, in the United
States. Edward Cumella, PhD, director of research and education at Remuda Ranch,
Programs for Eating Disorders, has said, “A primary risk factor for emotional eating is
living in a culture that values thinness, …This makes all Americans at risk because our
culture values thinness, therefore creating categories of ‘forbidden’ foods and leading to a
chronic experience of food deprivation” (“Emotional Eating Haunts Millions of
Americans”). The American culture’s value of thinness is apparent in television,
advertising, movies, music, and books. We place women who are extraordinarily thin on
runways, cast them in movies, and have them on billboards making it so that we are
constantly bombarded with an image of what an “ideal woman” should be. This image is
unrealistic and as such, is difficult for the average woman to attain. “The average U.S.
woman is 5’4″ and weighs 140 pounds. In contrast, the average U.S. model is 5’11″ and
weighs 117 pounds” (“About Eating Disorders”, 2013). This expectation that is placed on
women is rarely attained, and thus increases the likelihood that the average woman will
struggle with depression, low self-esteem, and high levels of stress, which are all leading
contributors to becoming an emotional eater.
Before the process of ending emotional eating can begin, the question of “why” must be
answered. There are many reasons why a person may struggle with emotional eating, and
in the book Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Really Works by Evelyn
Tribole and Elyse Resch, they share what they call “The Continuum of Emotional Eating”.
They explain that emotional eating “lies on a continuum of intensity that begins at one end
