Emotional eating is defined as consuming food as a way to deal with daily hassles and challenges of life that ones faces, such as anger, fear of failure, anxiety, nervousness and stress.

When we go through difficult times, it is natural for some people to seek comfort in eating food, it does not matter if you are happy or sad, emotions can lead to emotional eating.

There are some important factors that make emotional hunger harmful to your health and wellbeing. They are listed below:

1. Sudden and urgent need to eat something immediately, without actually feeling hungry.
2. Uncontrollable desire for specific types of foods that fall in the category of fast foods that are fried and high in calories and contain high salt and sugar content.
3. It makes you want to continue eating, even after your body has had enough food to sustain itself.
4. Eating excessively leaves you with a feeling of dissatisfaction and urge to continue eating, even though you know it is not good for you.

Emotional eating is influenced by negative emotions like, anger, frustration, stress at work etc. that leads to the release of stress hormone, that further makes you want to eat fatty and unhealthy foods.

It is natural for us to go out for lunches or dinners with family and friends, unfortunately, it is on these occasions that we forget to keep a check of how much and what it is, we are eating. 

Eating food becomes a competition and a way to prove that you can eat the most, nobody wins by eating the most and there is no feeling of satisfaction and happiness gained by overeating.

Most people have the habit of eating something, while they are watching television because it gives them something to do and makes them feel happy, this does not help especially when you eat fried foods with soft drinks that add nothing but empty calories to your body.

The dependence on emotional eating can be something that has been carried forward from your childhood and without realising it, we unconsciously rely on food as a way to reward ourselves for something we think we have achieved.

There are some ways that we can control emotional eating that are listed below:

1. Stress is one of the major factors that causes emotional eating, in order to take control of the situation, we can manage stress by doing breathing exercises, going for a brisk walk and taking a break from spending too much time in front of the screen.

2. One needs to make the distinction between physical hunger and emotional eating, this can be done by making a note of what you have eaten and when you had your last meal, so that you can keep a check on how many hours have passed between your last meal and your present meal.

3. Boredom is used as a common excuse for emotional eating, this can be avoided by engaging in outdoor sports, reading a book or anything that keeps your mind occupied productively.

4. If you really want to stop emotional eating, then cut down on unhealthy and comfort food and start eating a healthy diet that contains fruits, vegetables, pulses and dairy products which will help you to stay healthy.

Finally, emotional eating should not be allowed to affect your health and your lifestyle, an individual needs to keep their emotions in check and do not allow food to take over your life.