83% of overweight Australians blame comfort eating for condition

In research published to coincide with a national healthy weight week initiative, Cambridge Weight Plan says it has found that “emotional eating​” has been playing a substantial role in the rise of overweight Australia, with more than eight in 10 oversized Aussies blaming their condition on “eating emotionally​”. 

Ali Dale, a Perth-based psychologist from Shrinked, in giving her independent opinion on the Cambridge findings, said that stress and depression could be the triggers for a "vicious cycle​" of obesity. 

“Over 90% of Australian women who struggle with their weight comfort eat, [and] we know that 86% of men who struggle with their weight comfort eat​," Dr Dale said in a radio interview.

“Even if it's not a diagnosable mental health condition we know that if you're overweight then you're more likely to have certain hormones released into your system and you're more likely to look for high-fat, high-sugar foods​. If you're eating high-fat, high-sugar foods you gain more weight.”

Anti-obesity campaigns in Australia have mostly been based on a premise of "eat less, exercise more”—a message that Dale said was too simplistic.

"My hope would be that there's a greater awareness of the complexity of our relationship with food and that we start to move away from the eat-less, exercise-more type messages​," she said.

"There's a whole brain science behind what drives people to comfort eat and there's a psychology to that relationship​.”

The latest National Health Survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics found that 63% of Australians were either overweight or obese, with around 71% of men and 53% of women falling into this category.

The Australian Federal Government has spent more than A$100m (US$72m) in the past two years trying to combat weight gain and obesity from a mental health perspective.