Emotional Eating and Spiritual Well-Being: A Possible Connection?

The purpose of this exploratory study was to evaluate the relationship between emotional eating and spiritual well-being. It was found that among college women lower levels of spiritual well-being correlated with higher levels of emotional eating (r=-.22, p=.0015). In other studies emotional eating has been found to contribute to higher caloric intake, binge eating, and bulimic eating attitudes. A better understanding of the correlates of emotional eating may lead to health education strategies for preventing or managing overweight, obesity, and eating disorders—which may be some of the major public health issues of the future. Implications for health education are discussed, and research needs are suggested. Steven R. Hawks, EdD., MBA, and Marylynn B. Goudy, MS, are with the Department of Health Science, 229-L Richards Building, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602; E-mail: [email protected]. Julie A. Gast, PhD, is with the Department of HPER, Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84322. Steven R. Hawks, Marylynn B. Goudy, and Julie A. Gast American Journal of Health Education — January/February 2003, Volume 34, No. 1 31 commitment in relation to a well-defined worldview or belief system that provides a sense of meaning and purpose to existence in general, and that offers an ethical path to personal fulfillment with includes connectedness with self, others, and a higher power or larger reality” (Hawks, 1994, p.6). In support of the importance of spirituality as an interactive dimension of health, preliminary research findings have demonstrated a positive relationship between spiritual well-being and the practice of a variety of health behaviors (Waite, Hawks, & Gast, 1999). Other research has found that spiritual well-being positively correlates with self-esteem, finding meaning and purpose in life, high assertiveness, physical health, hope, and emotional adjustment. At the same time, spiritual well-being is negatively associated with depression, ill health, emotional maladjustment, and dissatisfaction with life (Bufford, Paloutzian, & Ellison, 1991; Ellison & Smith, 1991). Based on these definitions and findings, there is growing support for the argument that spiritual wellbeing is an essential dimension of holistic health that should be studied more fully and integrated into the practice of health education (Hawks, Hull, Thalman, & Richins, 1995). From this perspective it seems plausible that low levels of spiritual well-being, like low self-esteem, might be related to poor emotional responsiveness—with emotional eating and excessive caloric intake as possible outcomes. The aim of this exploratory study was to seek insight about the nature and possible origins of emotional eating by evaluating the relationship between emotional eating, spiritual well-being, and body mass index (BMI). It was hypothesized that a negative correlation would be found between spiritual health and emotional eating, but that no correlation would be found between spiritual health and two other motivations for eating (i.e. physical hunger, environmental prompts). It was further hypothesized that BMI, an indicator of overeating, would correlate positively with emotional eating. Pursuing this line of research may have implications for understanding some types of overeating and for promoting healthy weight management.