For many people, emotional eating is at the root of their inability to lose weight. Emotional eaters, or people who turn to food to deal with emotions, tend to take in far more calories than they need because they’re using their emotions, rather than their body’s natural hunger, as their guide.

An abundance of inexpensive, ready-to-eat food items that have been specially formulated with high fat and abundant sugar and salt have made it easy for people to use food as a tool to manage their moods. Food is so easy to come by that many people are not even aware of the fact they turn [...]