Eating to feel better: the relationship between food and emotions

BarcelonaHave you ever needed to eat chocolate after a very intense day? Or have you felt comforted by eating that dish your mother used to make that you hadn't tasted in such a long time? The relationship between food and emotions is deep and has historical roots because, in reality, food "fulfills many other functions beyond nourishing us," explains Juana Fernández, psychologist, dietitian-nutritionist, and co-author of the book Emotional Cooking (Temas de Hoy, 2026). "Food can accompany us, it can provide us with pleasure, be part of a celebration, connect us with other people, or help us momentarily to calm down," she explains. One only needs to remember Proust's madeleine and the torrent of sensations triggered by the bite of a simple madeleine for the protagonist of In Search of Lost Time.

Despite this intense relationship, Fernández warns of a more current phenomenon: food as a patch to solve problems. "We cannot use food as a shortcut for setbacks; rather, it should be a tool to know ourselves better and accompany our emotions." Both experts emphasize that they are talking about the phenomenon known as emotional eating and that it must be distinguished from eating disorders, which are serious illnesses that require medical treatment.

There are no miraculous foods

Marta Verona, nutritionist, chef and professor at the Basque Culinary Center, is the other co-author of the book and explains that it is important “not to deify or demonize any food,” because if we do so we are attributing a weight to them that does not correspond to them. “If I am sad, it is normal that I crave foods associated with a quick reward or pleasure, such as chocolate. There can be a very large sensory and emotional component that is arriving home, feeling in your own space, eating a piece of chocolate... but this does not turn chocolate into a miraculous food or a solution for sadness,” she warns. The mistake, she says, “is to attribute to food the responsibility of solving or worsening our emotional state.” And so, when I am sad I will go looking for chocolate as if it were the solution to sadness. Verona recommends a change of focus: “Instead of thinking that chocolate is my way of fighting against sadness or anxiety, it is better to think that this food serves me to accompany this emotion; this way food stops being a supposed solution” and the focus can be placed on emotional management. Fernández adds: “We must stop asking food to do a job that does not correspond to it.”

For the authors of the book, the important thing is to understand ourselves and know why we need or crave that food at that moment. For them, “emotional cooking” is what allows us to “better understand what happens to us and reach a point where, depending on how we feel, we know what to eat, so that foods accompany our emotions and we can manage them.”

What does emotional hunger hide?

Fernández explains that cases of people who have a great need to eat when they experience anxiety, fatigue, loneliness, sadness, anger, or a sense of emptiness arrive at her practice. “Many times what is behind it is not exactly the desire to eat, but rather the desire to stop, to rest, to feel accompanied, or to want to disconnect... but many people have learned to swallow these emotions and discomforts, and food becomes an available means of expression and regulation.” This is when they talk about “emotional hunger,” the hunger that appears linked to an emotion that needs to be regulated, accompanied, or expressed. “It does not mean that it is a fake hunger –clarifies Fernández– and we should not ignore it.” “It is part of the human experience and appears in certain emotional states. I am not interested in teaching someone to eliminate this emotional hunger but rather to understand what is behind it. What we perhaps need to stop doing is asking food to do an emotional management job that it is not supposed to do.”

Marta Verona gives the example of stress situations that often generate cravings for sugary foods. “Cortisol participates in the stress response and when it remains high for a long time, it can affect appetite, digestion, satiety, and cravings,” she explains. “In these moments of stress, some people may seek very energetic and desirable foods, rich in sugars and fats, and here dopamine comes into play, which is related to motivation and reward.” From an evolutionary point of view, they explain, this made sense because our brain highly valued these foods that provided energy in a moment of stress, but nowadays the context has changed: we live in a constantly stressed society where these types of foods are omnipresent. “Understanding these mechanisms can help us know our biology and can allow us to make more conscious decisions,” points out Verona.

A form of self-care

And once we learn to know ourselves and to detect what we feel like having, the next step arrives: cooking. Verona highlights that it is not always necessary to cook for others. “Cooking for oneself is a form of self-care. Behind this action there is much more depth because when you choose to cook for yourself you ask: "What do I feel like having today? What do I need?" And the answer will depend on your emotional state, your energy level, and how much you want to complicate things in the kitchen”. “Cooking is a beautiful way to gift love, to oneself and to others”, she stresses.

Furthermore, there is a more beneficial aspect of food and it is that it can help us to relax and activate the parasympathetic nervous system, according to the authors, who point out that cooking can actually be a way to meditate and that it can have the same benefits. “The kitchen is the new yoga –says Verona–, because while we cook we stimulate the five senses and find a great moment to stop and be mindful”. The expert explains that touch, hearing, sight, smell, and taste are all fully involved in the kitchen, and this makes it a “great opportunity to be in the present moment”.