Emotional Eating Under Negative Affect: A Narrative Review from the Perspectives of Emotion Regulation and Reward Processes in Food Choice

作者：Siwen Fu, Jie Chen, Xiaochun Wang · 发表于：Nutrients · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.3390/nu18111830 · 被引用次数：4 · 研究领域：Eating Disorders and Behaviors、Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet、Nutritional Studies and Diet

Emotional eating under negative affect refers to eating responses that occur in brief unpleasant emotional states and are not explained by hunger alone. This narrative review synthesizes representative evidence from experimental, ecological, and neurocognitive studies on emotional eating under negative affect, with emphasis on two interrelated pathways. (1) Emotion regulation: emotional eating may function as a rapid and accessible regulatory strategy through which food, especially highly palatable food, is used to attenuate negative affect. The immediate soothing effects of eating may reinforce later motivation and habitual responses to regulate emotions through food, whereas more adaptive strategies, such as cognitive reappraisal, may reduce the likelihood and intensity of emotion-related eating. (2) Reward processing and biased decision making: negative affect and affective stress contexts may diminish cognitive control and bias food choice toward immediate rewards. This pathway is reflected in increased attentional bias to food cues, stronger weighting of taste and palatability during value weighing, heightened responsivity to highly rewarding foods, and reduced regulatory influence of health and nutrition attributes. These processes may shift food choice toward energy-dense, nutrient-poor, and ultra-processed foods. The nutritional manifestations of emotional eating are not limited to total intake. Changes in intake quantity are heterogeneous, whereas changes in food cho...