Hi there,
I wonder why you are asking this question.
Eating is tied up with all sorts of emotional baggage in our society. We worry about what we feed our kids and whether it's bad not to breastfeed them and so on and the media tell us lots of conflicting things. Many mothers pass on food issues to their kids even though they mostly try not to. However, some of what gets labelled emotional eating may actually be a physiological response to sugar and grains. I never felt guilty after eating a steak (even though I maybe should because it was once an animal) but I have felt something that feels rather like guilt - or maybe regret - after eating carbs, especially sweet ones. Somehow they always seem to disappoint. However declicious a cake looks, it rarely lives up to it's promise.
I would have called myself an emotional eater, probably, in the past but since I started low carbing I feel much more dispassionate about food. I eat to live rather than living to eat. I still enjoy food but in a much more moderate way.

I’ve never been an emotional eater either. I have friends who turn to chocolate or sweet treats when they’re upset/stressed but I never did. In fact, whenever I’m upset or stressed I find I lose my appetite altogether and I have never had a sweet tooth…I actually really dislike chocolate!

My addiction to carbs was purely because they tasted nice and because carby foods are, unfortunately, the norm these days. I have never been a snacker/grazer, just two meals a day; lunch and dinner. Lunch would have usually been something stodgy from a shop near work (sandwich, pasta, noodles etc) and dinner would probably consist of a meat and rice (rice is my nemesis – I would have it with everything). I wouldn’t get a ‘high’ or a nice feeling after eating, it was just lunch and dinner.

I suppose in that respect, my move to Atkins was pretty easy as I just changed my mindset that food is fuel and nothing more. I didn’t have any emotional ties to cut. I have had a lunch of Chicken, Broccoli, Cauliflower & Asparagus every weekday for the best part of a year. My colleagues keep asking if it’s boring, but that doesn’t come into it for me. I need protein and good carbs from vegetables!

Loved reading through your back and forth...thanks for sharing it!

I'm unlearning this. Becoming unemotional about food, and treating it like fuel? Very liberating. For sure.

I do find this a strange question. I don't get any "high" from any food. The emotional connection for me is that food (and especially going out to eat) has long been associated with celebrations, time with friends and family, etc. But the food itself? No.

I never got a "high" but for sure could satisfy an emotional need to eat that would relax me and at least take that nagging desire of feeling somehow unfulfilled away.

Until the next hour or day or week. Whenever it caused an emotional reaction of regret and disgust.

Yes I get what i would call it satisified... Like a feel good feeling when I eat a really good steak or have some really good teraki steak tips or have a really good dark meat roasted chicken.

In a way yes it is a high because pleasure endorphins I am releasing chemically from the enjoyment.

YUM!!!!

I wouldn't say it is emotional but it is quite pleasurable...

Yes, I think you can unlearn that behavior or to not derive pleasure from food but from other sources.

But Enjoying a good protein too me is like enjoying a painting or a swim in the ocean. It makes me feel good...

And most importantly my body loves protein

When I first saw your heading I thought about when I was a kid and the males in the family got all the best parts of the "meat" (whatever was being served). The women/girls didn't seem to mind and seemed happy with the tidbits. I didn't grow up with backwards people, they were educated, but there was an ethnic overlay of men being dominant/privileged that persisted at the dinner table.

And I think as a little girl I was secretly jealous.

So I don't know if it's emotional so much as psychological: I do feel happy (fulfilled, smug?) when I get to eat a nice fatty steak or chop for myself, cooked just the way I like it. Sort of a top-dog feeling.

I know that may not be what you meant but just free-associating here.

I have often eaten too much simply because I love the taste of good food. But I would also overeat on food I didn't care for, simply because of the urge to get full to the top. And that's what I consider emotional eating - the underlying fear of not enough food.

Kind of funny - I used to crave fats and meat. Now that I am "allowed" to have them, I don't crave them. Nor do I overeat (much) of them. Tho I am able to eat about twice as much meat as my husband does. A bit embarrassing at times.