13/02/2026
As methods for studying the nervous system have improved, scientists have discovered that when emotional eaters experience stress, the reward centres in their brains are suppressed. It means that to experience the usual feeling of reward from food, they eat even more food—and, of course, not salad, but sweet or fatty foods. It was previously thought that the reward centres in the brains of emotional eaters were highly active and produced excessive dopamine. We now know that high cortisol (stress) levels suppress this response, and a serving of tasty food, which would typically bring pleasure and relaxation to a non-emotional eater, is barely noticeable. This is why emotional eaters choose ultra-processed foods over broccoli or chicken. Only sweet and fatty foods contain enough psychoactive substances to stimulate the reward centres to some extent. At the same time, the area of the brain responsible for choosing flexible coping strategies is suppressed—emotional eaters are forced into a narrow range of choices. The only behaviour that has the most substantial effect remains: eating supercaloric foods. It is not a choice as we understand it—emotional eaters really have only one option out of one.
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