It’s been a hard day. The worst thing you could do is reach for the chocolate chip cookies that taste like the ones your family always had when you were a kid – right?

Not necessarily, said Jennifer Rollin, founder of The Eating Disorder Center in Rockville, Maryland.

Eating driven by emotions, otherwise known as emotional eating, is often painted as scary, unhealthy, and out of control, but the truth is that it is very normal and can be part of a healthy relationship with food, she added.

Of course, there is a line where emotional eating can become unhealthy, but it is important that people embrace nuance when it comes to ways of eating, rather than apply strict rules and shame-based strategies, said Robin Klein, a weight-inclusive eating disorder dietitian in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania.

It may be time to put emotional eating into proper perspective and learn how to work with it, rather than against, for a healthier relationship with food, experts said.

What is emotional eating?
Food is inherently emotional, Rollin said.

You can probably think of particular foods you eat as part of a cultural tradition, when you are connecting socially or when you are celebrating an accomplishment, she added.

“If you think about it, our lives are centered around food. Food can be really comforting, and a lot of us build traditions in all of our cultures around food that is nostalgic and sentimental,” Klein said.

Human bodies are also built to enjoy food, so it makes sense that when you are feeling strong emotions, you reach for something that tastes or feels good, Rollin said. You shouldn’t shame yourself if eating something you enjoy is one of the tools in your coping toolkit.

“We don’t shame ourselves for the use of other coping tools,” she added. “Simply eating a food, sometimes for emotional reasons, is not a problem and not something that you need to judge or beat yourself up for.”

Like most coping tools, the context matters, Klein said. Are you eating to enjoy something delicious after a hard day or in celebration of a milestone? Or are you avoiding addressing a larger issue?

“We can’t ever say this is entirely good or this is entirely bad without knowing the big picture of what’s going on in somebody’s life,” she added.