With the holiday season coming along, feelings of joy and even sadness are in the air. Unfortunately, both may be accompanied by the habit of over-eating. Not only a holiday season issue, emotional eating is dealt with by everyday people.

According to Elaine Magee, MPH, RD, emotional eating is “when you reach for food because of the way you feel and not because you are physically hungry.” She also states “knowing that you are vulnerable to emotional eating is probably the first step while learning how best to handle and minimize emotional eating episodes is perhaps the most challenging.”

With the holiday season comes the feelings of sadness and stress. On Christmas Day, when everyone is around the dinner table helping themselves to the food, one may take more than they would usually consume. Having that feeling of satisfaction rather than stress is a reason for the overeating.

TeensHealth says although “people often turn to food when they’re stressed out, lonely, sad, anxious, or bored… emotional eating can be linked to positive feelings too, like the romance of sharing dessert on Valentine’s day or the celebration of a holiday feast.” Another “study found that happy people seem to want to eat things like pizza, while sad people prefer ice cream and cookies. Bored people crave salty, crunchy things, like chips.”

Emotional eating is not always known the person it affects. In teenagers, it can occur when studying for a big test and munching on a couple cookies. Another example, which is commonly seen in movies, is the “break up feast”; watching movies with girlfriends, eating ice cream, popcorn, or any other kind of comfort food.

Sometimes emotional eating can be very serious to one’s health, but luckily there are “techniques that help manage emotions besides eating” says Jane Jakubczak, a registered dietitian at the University of Maryland. The very first step to manage emotional eating is to “recognize [it] and learn what triggers this behavior…” is a tip she listed.

Again, with big feasts for the holiday season, it is good to know what may happen beforehand. If stress seems to be taking over your emotions, do not turn to food as the answer. This can become a habit and one that can be complicated to get rid of.