Emotional eating is a concept which describes a tendency towards overeating in response to the negative emotions. Emotional eating was initially recognized along with bulimia that emotions taken as a factor which reinforces the over-eating of bulimic patients. Later on, it was found out that binge eating itself could also be related to emotional eating. Emotional eating is prevalant in people who have obesity, women with eating disorders, and people who have a regular weight but are on diet. The concept of emotional eating is becoming increasingly important, especially in the interventions for weight-loss management. Considering the issues such as eating disorders and weight changes in psychiatric disorders, diabetes and metabolic syndrome- no matter relation with the side effects of drugs, and psycho-social issues entangled with weight-loss management, makes it obvious that the concept of emotional eating demands more research.
Key words: emotional eating, binge eating, obesity, eating disorders
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