How To Stop Stress Eating With Healthier Habits

Do you find that you eat more—or less—healthy foods when you're feeling stressed? If so, you aren't alone. Many people face this challenge in cases of both acute and chronic stress. Small life changes can help you to overcome the habit of stress eating by replacing it with healthier habits. 

Here, we'll define stress-eating behavior, explain why some people engage in stress-eating, and discuss what you can do to be more mindful when you’re feeling stressed. We’ll also highlight resources for individuals who’d like to speak with a mental health professional about stress management, binge eating, and related concerns. 

What is stress eating?

"Stress eating" generally refers to a variety of habits and cravings, including eating sweeter or fattier foods or more convenient foods (i.e., fast food, frozen meals) when an individual is feeling stressed—even if they aren’t necessarily hungry.

Not all people who stress eat experience stress food cravings; however, many of them will engage in less healthy food choices out of convenience. The foods that an individual craves when they are stressed can be fairly unique to that individual, but the foods in question might usually fall into the category of "energy-rich and nutrient-poor." In other words, they contain a lot of carbs, fats, and sugar but not much else. 

Biological factors influencing stress eating

When your body is stressed, it experiences a flush of stress hormones, including cortisol. Cortisol changes how your body interacts with food, including the kinds of foods that it craves.

Most foods that provide an excess of energy very quickly do so by providing the body with carbs, possibly in the form of processed sugars, grains, and fats.

Once eaten, you may find that your body “rewards” you by flushing your brain with feel-good chemicals like dopamine. If you're already feeling down because of stress, a hit of dopamine from a candy bar can cause feelings of (temporary) relief.

Temporal factors influencing stress eating

Processed and unhealthy foods may not have the edge over healthier foods in terms of energy density and dopamine volume. Processed foods might also usually be faster to prepare.

Here’s what we mean: When you're stressed, you may want to save time and conserve your energy by eating prepared foods or even foods that you can eat on the go. After all, making stew takes a lot more time than hitting the drive-through. While this can be more convenient over time, it may not be the healthiest option for your long-term goals. A dietician or a healthcare professional can help you to assess your diet, ensuring that it helps you to meet your current scope of dietary needs.  

Healthier habits: Healthy sugars, fats and carbs

The thing about sugar, fats, and carbohydrates is that none of them are inherently unhealthy—your body generally needs all of them to survive. A possible problem lies in the fact that these nutrients might too often be delivered in the fastest way and in the largest volumes by processed and unhealthy foods—which can lead to health concerns down the line.

The trick for many can be healthier swaps. For example: Fruits can be healthier sources of sugar and may often be just as convenient to eat. Beyond the possible sugar that fruits can offer, they can also provide other healthy nutrients like fiber, vitamins, and minerals. 

Carbohydrates can also be found in healthier forms. When your body craves carbs, you can still give your body carbs. You might just look for carbs from whole grains— like whole-grain bread and pasta.  If you make your own baked goods at home, you can also use less processed flour or a blend of part processed flour and part unprocessed flour for healthier sweets.

Fats can also come in healthier and less healthy varieties, which you can leverage to suit your needs. Possibly unhealthy fats can include the hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils that are found in junk foods, as well as fats from animal sources. Healthy fats can come from nuts or plant sources like avocados or can be found in sources like plant oils. By making sure that your fat comes from healthier sources, you can feed your body's cravings while maintaining your health.

Healthy habits: Meal prepping

All of the suggestions above might help you manage your cravings on a biological level—however, unhealthy foods still may be far quicker to prepare, which could lead to reliance on less-than-healthy foods. Perhaps the best way to circumvent this obstacle is through meal prepping.

Meal prepping generally involves making large amounts of food ahead of time and then freezing or refrigerating it so that you can reheat or arrange it when you need a nutritious and somewhat more convenient meal. Foods that can work particularly well in meal prepping include soups and stews.

Burgers can be particularly easy to meal prep. You can buy formed patties or buy ground beef and form your own patties. Then, you can simply throw some in the fridge for easy use and put the rest in the freezer. 

You can also meal-prep a healthy breakfast by throwing a bowl of oats and water into the fridge before you go to bed. Overnight, they can absorb the water—turning it into oatmeal which you can easily heat up in the morning. You can also pre-mix raw eggs with grated cheese and diced vegetables and pour them into a covered container, cooking the finished product up in the morning as is convenient for you.

When you make your own foods at home, it doesn't only allow you to have ready-to-go healthy meals—it can also allow you to make those meals as healthy as possible by controlling the ingredients and portion sizes.

Healthy habits: Healthy, portable foods

Unhealthy foods also don't have a complete monopoly on portability. Sandwiches can easily be consumed on the go. Fruits and vegetables also make convenient snacks. You can pack them whole or cut them up—possibly pairing them with a healthy dip like hummus. 

Nuts can also be a convenient source of healthy fats as well as protein and other nutrients that can satisfy your snacking urge.

Another benefit of nuts and cut vegetables is that they’re good for “grazing.” Some people might find that when they’re nervous or stressed, they like to be eating all the time for the stimulation—so a snack that you can eat slowly all over a long time might be more satisfying than a snack that you eat all at once. 

To go back to meal prepping for a moment, soup and stew that you cook at home can easily be brought to work in a covered container and then just popped into the microwave for a minute or two to be ready to eat. There goes the excuse to hit up the drive-through during your lunch hour or on the way to or from work!

Seek support from a nutritionist or therapist: Here’s how online therapy can help 

If you find that you are under seemingly constant pressure or that it is unusually difficult to control your cravings, you might benefit from doing more than just switching from chips to carrot sticks.

If you have an eating or anxiety disorder, or feel excessively overwhelmed from stress, you may consider talking to a mental health professional, a dietitian or another healthcare specialist who has special experience in nutrition.

Online therapy can be helpful to many who are working through stress eating, eliminating the need for drive time allocation or wait lists in your therapeutic process. You can book in at times that work for your schedule and from a preferred location with a safe internet connection—possibly alleviating other sources of stress. 

Is online therapy effective?

Studies indicate that online therapy may be more effective for stress eating, emotional eating or overeating than in-person counseling. In a recent investigation, researchers used an internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) approach to support participants struggling with emotional distress, depression and anxiety disorders. The study showed improved patient empowerment and clinical efficiency compared to traditional CBT.