Emotional eating is when people use food as a way to deal with feelings instead of to satisfy hunger. We've all been there, finishing a whole bag of chips out of boredom or eating cookie after cookie while  _ for a big test. But when done a lot -- especially without realizing it -- emotional eating can affect weight, health, and overall well-being. Not many of us make the connection between eating and our feelings. But understanding what drives emotional eating can help people take steps to change it. One of the biggest myths about emotional eating is that it's prompted by negative feelings. Yes, people often turn to food when they're stressed out, lonely, sad, anxious, or bored. But emotional eating can be linked to positive feelings too, like the romance of sharing dessert on Valentine's Day or the celebration of a holiday feast. Sometimes emotional eating is tied to major life events, like a death or a divorce. More often, though, it's the countless little daily stresses that cause someone to seek comfort or distraction in food. Emotional eating patterns can be learned: A child who is given candy after a big achievement may grow up using candy as a reward for a job well done. A kid who is given cookies as a way to stop crying may learn to link cookies with comfort. We're all emotional eaters to some extent. But for some people, emotional eating can be a real problem, causing serious weight gain or cycles of binging and purging. The trouble with emotional eating (apart from the health issues) is that once the pleasure of eating is gone, the feelings that cause it remain. And you often may feel worse about eating the amount or type of food you did. That's why it helps to know the differences between physical hunger and emotional hunger. Next time you reach for a snack, check in and see which type of hunger is driving it. The passage is mainly about   _  .
what emotional eating is and its harm the differences between physical hunger and emotional hunger how to have a healthy diet the relationship between eating and feelings