Some children are quick to accept a bottle of milk, cookies, or crackers as a replacement for physical touch and emotional nurturing when parents are unable to provide them with such care. When a child receives food instead of emotional nurturing, it is quite probable that such a child will make poor food choices in the future. The process of “I need emotional nurturing = I get physical food” leaves them unable to tell the difference between normal emotions, such as anger, sadness or loneliness, and the desire to eat from a very early stage. And thus it happens that food becomes the replacement for emotional nurturing for some children as they learn to feel physical hunger in place of emotional need. When these children grow up, their most intimate friendships are with chocolates, cookies, ice cream, pizza, etc. which eases feelings of loneliness and/or reduces shame or anger.
In these cases, diets fail – and with failure comes shame, for which another sweet treat is needed to ease the discomfort. And so it goes, on and on.
Now there are other variations to this emotional relation to food, but you get the idea. Here is a relevant study that addresses the importance of emotions in food choices:
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