April in the Western world is a month overflowing with meaningful meals and food-filled celebrations. From Easter brunches and Passover Seders to casual Earth Day picnics and the fun of National Pretzel Day, the calendar is dotted with opportunities to gather, feast, and connect.

Food is central to our lives not just for sustenance, but as a rich expression of culture, tradition, and emotional experience. It is how we celebrate milestones, comfort each other during hard times, and even how we express love and belonging. Whether it’s grandma’s matzo ball soup or a shared chocolate bunny, food carries stories and sentiments we may not even realize.

But amidst all this joy, there is an undercurrent that is rarely acknowledged: the emotional side of eating that can quietly slide into imbalance. For many, it’s not just a piece of cake or a slice of pie. It’s a complex dance of craving, habit, stress, and self-soothing. And more often than not, we don’t even realize it.

Have you ever caught yourself standing in front of the fridge, not out of hunger but out of boredom or stress? Or maybe after a full, satisfying meal, you still find yourself reaching for “just one more bite” of something sweet or salty? This is not just about willpower. In fact, it’s rarely about willpower at all.

We live in a culture that constantly bombards us with food cues—images, smells, ads, social gatherings—and many of these cues are emotionally charged. Our brains begin to associate food with emotional regulation. Food becomes a way to cope with loneliness, anxiety, fatigue, and even happiness. And this emotional pattern becomes so familiar that we often don’t recognize it until it’s deeply ingrained.

What science has increasingly shown is that eating is not just a physical act but an emotional and hormonal one. Many different hormones are involved in regulating our appetite, satiety, and digestion. Many of these same hormones also influence our mood, stress levels, and emotions.

Let’s take just one example: ghrelin, often called the “hunger hormone.” The V is produced primarily in the stomach, but the small intestine and pancreas also release small amounts of ghrelin. Its levels increase between mealtimes and decrease when your stomach is full. People who have obesity often have low ghrelin levels, while people who significantly restrict their calorie intake have high ghrelin levels. ghrelin signals the brain when it’s time to eat, but interestingly, ghrelin also plays a role in mood and psychological behavior. Studies have found that ghrelin levels can rise in response to stress, not just hunger, leading to emotional cravings. It can even have antidepressant-like effects in certain contexts, which may explain why we instinctively reach for food when we feel low.

You can support healthier ghrelin levels through consistent lifestyle habits: eating balanced meals with healthy carbohydrates, limiting processed foods, especially those high in sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, and salt, drinking plenty of water, and eating water-filled foods like fruits and vegetables.

This is only the beginning of the story.

Stay tuned for the next article, we’ll explore how other powerful hormones like dopamine or cortisol are deeply linked to our eating behaviors, and what you can do to restore a healthy balance between food, mood, and movement.