ReviewThe Proceedings of the Nutrition Society2020
Emotional eating in healthy individuals and patients with an eating disorder: evidence from psychometric, experimental and naturalistic studies.
Review in The Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 59 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
59 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 136 citations in OpenAlex.
- The global prevalence of emotional eating in overweight and obese populations: A systematic review and meta-analysis.British journal of psychology (London, England : 1953) · 2025Pooled it
- Emotional Eating Interventions for Adults Living With Overweight and Obesity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Behaviour Change Techniques.Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association · 2025Pooled it
- Emotional Eating Interventions for Adults Living with Overweight or Obesity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Pooled it
- Impact of exercise training and diet therapy on the physical fitness, quality of life, and immune response of people living with HIV/AIDS: a randomized controlled trial.BMC public health · 2024Trial
- Eating-Related Profiles in Multiple Sclerosis: Associations with Coping, Health Locus of Control, and Self-Management.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Article
- Emotional Stability and Emotional Eating in Medical Students: Exploring Indirect Associations Involving Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms.Nutrients · 2026Observational
- Dietary Patterns, Eating Disorder Risk, Emotional Distress, and Amino Acid Intake in Adults Seeking Weight Loss.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Snacking Behaviors in Relation to Stress and Physical Activity Using Automated Dietary Assessment: Observational Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Observational
- Does Feeling Bad Lead to Eating Bad? How Emotion, Deliciousness (Mis)match, and Weight Status Alter Food Choice and ERPs.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Emotional Eating and Its Associations with the Prevalence of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms in University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Screen Time, Unhealthy Eating Behaviors, and Associated Health Risks in Children: A Narrative Review.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Emotional Eating Under Negative Affect: A Narrative Review from the Perspectives of Emotion Regulation and Reward Processes in Food Choice.Nutrients · 2026Review
- Emotions, emotion regulation, and eating behavior in women with a healthy weight and women with obesity: A daily life study.Applied psychology. Health and well-being · 2026Article
- Review
- Emotional Influences on Eating Behavior and Hunger Awareness Among Generation Z University Students in Greece.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Psychometric Properties and Gender-Based Assessment of the Florence Emotional Eating Drive (FEED) in Brazilians.Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association · 2026Article
- Stressors, Emotions and Eating: Evidence for Time-Pressure-Driven Snacking Rather Than Emotional Eating.Stress and health : journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress · 2026Article
- Analysis of the Inter-Scale Agreement of Questionnaires to Assess the Emotional Eating in a Population of Polish Girls: PLACE-19 Study.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Emotional eating has traditionally been defined as (over)eating in response to negative emotions. Such overeating can impact general health because of excess energy intake and mental health, due to the risks of developing binge eating. Yet, there is still significant controversy on the validity of the emotional eating concept and several theories compete in explaining its mechanisms. The present paper examines the emotional eating construct by reviewing and integrating recent evidence from psychometric, experimental and naturalistic research. Several psychometric questionnaires are available and some suggest that emotions differ fundamentally in how they affect eating (i.e. overeating, undereating). However, the general validity of such questionnaires in predicting actual food intake in experimental studies is questioned and other eating styles such as restrained eating seem to be better predictors of increased food intake under negative emotions. Also, naturalistic studies, involving the repeated assessment of momentary emotions and eating behaviour in daily life, are split between studies supporting and studies contradicting emotional eating in healthy individuals. Individuals with clinical forms of overeating (i.e. binge eating) consistently show positive relationships between negative emotions and eating in daily life. We will conclude with a summary of the controversies around the emotional eating construct and provide recommendations for future research and treatment development.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.