
Emotional eating becomes a larger issue when it impacts your health goals and mental state

This article originally appeared in the Winter 2025 issue. View the full issue here.
Have you ever felt a strong, almost gravitational pull toward a sleeve of Oreos after a fight with your spouse? Or shoved half a donut into your mouth after an annoying call?
You’re not alone. Many of us, including first responders, experience stress or emotional eating, and it can have a devastating impact on your relationship with food.
Emotional eating is when you eat in response to an emotional, but not a physical, hunger. Sometimes the emotions are negative but some may be positive, like your engineer’s retirement. Mild emotional eating can be OK occasionally – after all, we often eat when we’re celebrating. But it becomes a larger issue when emotional eating impacts health goals and mental state.
Why We Stress Eat
First responders are no strangers to stress. But chronic, long-term stress can ramp up appetite. The adrenal glands release a hormone called cortisol, which increases the drive to eat to ensure fuel is available to fight the tiger or get to safety. Typically, appetite wanes when cortisol drops – so if stress stays high, so does cortisol.
Uncontrolled stress can also promote neurobiological adaption in the brain that results in compulsive consumption of what’s called hyperpalatable foods. This means chronic stress can rewire the brain to prefer sweet, salty, and fatty foods. And sleep deprivation only fuels this.
One night of bad sleep can lead to a 24% increase in appetite thanks to a shift in hormones that regulate appetite. After that one bad night, leptin (the appetite suppressor) decreases by 18%, and ghrelin (the hunger stimulator) increases by 28%. Sleep deprivation also shifts food choices towards sweet, salty, and fatty foods.
How to Reduce Stress Eating
Changes in hormonal response and brain chemistry sound scary, especially when stress is part of the job. The good news? There is something you can do about it.
Try these tips to cut back on stress eating:
- Meditate: Take a break to breathe for two to five minutes. Meditation can help reduce stress and impulse control, reducing the instinct to grab a treat right after the call.
- Change the environment: Hide the treats and donuts behind a closed door. Yes, this works in the firehouse! Dr. Jill Joyce from Oklahoma State University received grant funding to provide fire stations with tangerines, apples, granola bars, trail mix, veggies/dip, and other healthy snacks. There was one rule for receiving snacks. Firefighters had to hide all treats behind a closed door, and only Dr. Joyce’s snacks could be on the counters. Dr. Joyce found that firefighters ate an extra pound of produce per shift when healthier options were visually available and the treats were out of sight.
- Change your route: Do you walk into the kitchen after every call, even if it’s out of the way? It’s time to change your route to reduce the temptation to grab another quarter of a donut. Try the breathing break discussed above, even if it’s only for a minute.
- Add a healthier snack: Cutting out snacks might seem like a simple solution, but this can lead to overeating later in the shift. Edge out the sweets with Greek yogurt, fruit, jerky, nuts, unbuttered popcorn, or a protein bar.
- Try a mindful eating app: Choose one that tracks your hunger cues and emotions around eating, rather than simply calories. Calls can force you to override your hunger cues but these apps will show patterns in hunger levels and emotions, helping you learn your triggers.
How to Get Support
Emotional eating is a spectrum and if you feel it impacts your quality of life, it’s time to consider professional help. This would ideally include a behavioral health therapist and a dietitian who can help with nutrition, ensuring that you eat enough to support your goals. A therapist will help process the emotional component of food, which can be key for a first responder.
If you feel you can’t make a behavioral change, a good therapist can help you work through that mental block and move confidently toward change.
This article originally appeared within the Winter 2025 issue. View the full issue here, or browse all back issues in the CRACKYL Library.