New review highlights emotional regulation as key to tackling emotional eating driven by stress and sadness

A comprehensive review of 40 studies reveals a significant link between poor emotion regulation and emotional eating, particularly when individuals turn to food during negative emotional states. Experts emphasise that improving coping skills may be crucial for effective intervention.

A new scientific review has found a clear link between difficulty managing emotions and emotional eating, especially when people turn to food in response to stress, sadness or anxiety rather than physical hunger.

According to Sky News, the analysis combined 40 studies covering 42 independent samples and 14,481 participants, with an average age of about 27. Women made up nearly 68% of the group. The research, which involved scholars from the University of the Basque Country and other Spanish universities, found a moderate association between poor emotion regulation and emotional eating.

The pattern was strongest for negative emotions. Studies looking only at eating in response to positive feelings did not show a statistically significant relationship, suggesting that distress, rather than pleasure, is the main driver in this behaviour. The researchers said the findings do not prove that emotional regulation problems directly cause emotional eating, but they do point to a meaningful connection between the two.

That fits with earlier research. A 2007 study in Eating Behaviors found that emotion regulation difficulties explained a significant share of binge eating among undergraduates, while a 2021 Appetite study suggested that negative emotional eating is more closely tied to disordered eating when emotion regulation problems are higher. Another 2021 paper found that distress tolerance may help protect against loss-of-control eating by weakening the link between emotional instability and overeating.

Taken together, the studies suggest that efforts to address emotional eating may work best when they go beyond diet advice alone. Improving coping skills, emotional awareness and resilience under pressure may be just as important as changing what people eat.