The Best Books About Emotional Eating, According to a Dietitian
Written by Isabel Vasquez, RD, LDN
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Despite what diet culture may have you believe, emotional eating isn’t inherently bad. Diet culture has portrayed emotional eating as something shameful to avoid when in reality, it’s totally normal to eat in response to emotions from time to time!
The potential problem comes when food is your primary method of coping with your emotions rather than being one of many tools in your metaphorical toolbelt.
If you want to learn more about what emotional eating is, what causes it, and how to cope with it, you’ve come to the right place. We’re sharing all that plus recommendations for books that address emotional eating.
What is Emotional Eating?
Emotional eating is when we eat in response to emotions we’re feeling. The emotions trigger us to eat.
We’ve probably ALL eaten emotionally before. Just think of the notion of “comfort food”. If you’re feeling down, it’s natural to crave food that makes you feel good. It may bring you pleasure and comfort.
The idea of eating for comfort or pleasure has gotten such a bad rap, but if food wasn’t meant to evoke pleasure then it would all taste the same.
It’s also worth noting that many people label their eating as emotional, when it’s really just deprivation-driven eating. Evelyn Tribole, MS, RDN, CEDRD-S and Elyse Resch, MS, RDN, CEDRD-S, FAND address this in their book, Intuitive Eating. They say:
“What many folks have labeled as emotional eating is merely a psychological and biological consequence of food restriction. It’s important to heal the deprivation effects of food, which have both psychological and biological consequences.”
Therefore, if you have been dieting for a while, don’t be so quick to label your eating as emotional. It may simply be your body replenishing itself after a period of restriction.
What Causes Emotional Eating?
Certain emotions are more likely to trigger the urge to eat. A few of the most common ones are boredom, loneliness, and sadness. Food may be used to help distract you from these unpleasant emotions.
Eating out of boredom
Many of our clients report mindless eating when they’re bored. This makes sense, especially if you find that you often need something to do with your hands while you’re relaxing on the couch. It can help break up a monotonous routine and give you some stimulation.
Watching TV for a few hours? A trip to the kitchen to grab a snack can break up the time spent sitting on the couch.
Eating to counter loneliness
I think we can all agree that loneliness is not a fun feeling. Not only is it no fun, it’s linked with health issues like premature death, dementia, and depression. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), immigrant and LGBTQIA+ communities are more likely to experience loneliness.
For a lot of people, eating can distract from that loneliness. Maybe you eat food that brings you comfort like your abuela’s signature mangu or your titi’s flan. It might help you feel connected to loved ones you haven’t seen in a while.
Maybe you eat to numb that loneliness by focusing on the food and maybe even uncomfortable fullness that results.
The opposite might also be true. When lonely, you may deprive yourself of food in order to focus on physical hunger instead of on the loneliness (or emotional hunger) surfacing.
Eating when you’re sad
Food brings us pleasure, so it could distract us from sadness. You know the classic breakup scene in movies where someone’s sitting on the couch watching a rom com, crying and eating a pint of ice cream? I’m sure many of us have reenacted that scene in real life!
Additionally, if you’re enjoying what you’re eating, the idea of that experience ending may bring up some sadness. You might continue eating past comfortable fullness to extend that pleasurable experience.
Is Emotional Eating Unhealthy?
Despite diet culture’s demonization of emotional eating, it’s not inherently unhealthy. When it’s just one of many coping skills you have to tend to your emotions, there’s probably nothing to be concerned about.
It can also signal to you that there are emotions within you to explore and tend to.
When exploring your own use of eating as a way to cope with emotions, do so non-judgmentally.
Even if you’re frequently using food as a means of coping with your emotions, acknowledge that it has served a purpose and it doesn’t affect your worth or character.
It’s simply something to observe and an opportunity to better care for yourself as uncomfortable emotions surface in the future. You are learning about yourself!
The Best Books About Emotional Eating
1.The Latina Anti-Diet by Dalina Soto MA, RD, LDN
Dalina Soto is the owner of our nutrition practice and she’s an incredible advocate for the nutritional value of Latin American cultural foods!
Her book has a whole chapter titled ‘Acknowledge Your Emotions’, in which Soto shares client stories about how emotions and trauma affect eating behaviors and how she helps them develop a better relationship with food.
She highlights the innate emotional connection we have to food, especially as Latinas, while providing guidance for what to do when it becomes disordered. It’s a must read!
2.Hunger by Roxane Gay
Roxane Gay is one my absolute favorite authors and her memoir, Hunger, does not disappoint.
In this book, she talks about her experience living as a fat black woman, how her relationship with food and her body has been impacted by trauma she faced as a child, and how her body influences how she is perceived in the world.
She shares how food became a coping mechanism to handle her trauma. It’s a unique personal account of the ways emotions and trauma can shape our relationships to food and our bodies.
3.Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison MPH, RD
Christy Harrison’s first book, Anti-Diet, is a deep dive into the ways that diet culture harms us and how to break free from it.
The first section details how diet culture steals our time, money, well-being, and happiness, and the second section addresses how to move on from diet culture and improve your relationship with food and your body.
As a journalist-turned-dietitian, Harrison is an excellent writer and researcher.
Throughout the book, she explains the historical origins of the term ‘emotional eating’ and how it’s become a way that diet culture makes us feel like failures rather than humans with real energy needs. There’s a lot more good stuff in this book, so give it a read!
4.Decolonizing Wellness: A QTBIPOC-Centered Guide to Escape the Diet Trap, Heal Your Self-Image, and Achieve Body Liberation by Dalia Kinsey RD, LD
A common critique of intuitive eating is that it lacks a social justice lens. That’s where books like this one are extremely valuable. Dalia Kinsey brings a different perspective to the conversation.
Kinsey, a registered dietitian, approaches body positivity and food freedom from a queer, BIPOC lens, addressing all the unique factors that impact these marginalized communities’ relationships with food and their bodies.
There is a whole chapter about prioritizing pleasure—a refreshing shift from diet culture’s focus on restriction and ‘purity’.
5.Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole, MS, RDN and Elyse Resch, MS, RDN
Of course, Intuitive Eating had to be included on this list! This is the book that brought intuitive eating into the world—a non-diet, weight-inclusive approach to nutrition that includes a principle called ‘Cope with Your Emotions with Kindness’.
In this book, the authors (aka the founders of intuitive eating) write in-depth about all 10 principles of intuitive eating, along with other important context for this non-diet approach to nutrition.
The book has a whole chapter dedicated to emotional eating, in which the authors address different types of emotional eating, common triggers, ways to meet your emotional needs with or without food, and more.
6.The Intuitive Eating Workbook: Ten Principles for Nourishing a Healthy Relationship with Food by Evelyn Tribole, MS, RDN and Elyse Resch, MS, RDN
As you read Intuitive Eating, consider making your way through the companion workbook. This helps you put the principles of intuitive eating into practice and reflect on how the different concepts—like emotional eating—affect your life.
Especially if you could use some guidance on improving your relationship with food but you can’t work with a nutrition professional right now, this workbook is an affordable and accessible way to make progress.
Final Thoughts
Diet culture may make you feel like you need to stop emotional eating in its tracks, but emotional eating is not inherently bad.
Reading emotional eating books or completing emotional eating-focused workbooks can help you explore your relationship to food in a nonjudgmental way. This can help you work towards better physical, emotional, and mental health without dieting.
You can also work with one of our amazing Latina dietitians virtually via insurance to learn how to reduce emotional eating and promote your health with gentle nutrition.
For education on how to ADD nutrition to your favorite Latine cultural dishes, make peace with food, and focus on your health without dieting, join our nutrition library for just $27/month. The library includes budget-friendly recipes that are full of nutrition.
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