By transforming comfort eating toward healthy comfort eating, individuals can receive the benefit of improved dietary nutrition and in turn, decrease their risk of morbidity and mortality over time.

The benefit of transforming unhealthy comfort eating toward healthy comfort eating

This study showed that participants' psychological and physiological stress responses were the same regardless of whether they ate healthy comfort foods or traditional comfort foods high in calories, fat, or sugar.

Pepperdine University

People respond to stress by increasing their intake of foods that are high in calories, fat, or sugar. According to American Psychological Association (2016), this is a common behavior, with approximately 39% of American adults reporting overeating or eating unhealthy foods because of stress.

Unhealthy Comfort Eating

People respond to stress by eating fruits and vegetables that contain natural sugars (e.g., fructose).

Healthy Comfort Eating

Finch, L. E., Cummings, J. R., & Tomiyama, A. J. (2019). Cookie or clementine? Psychophysiological stress reactivity and recovery after eating healthy and unhealthy comfort foods. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 107, 26-36. doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019.04.022

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