Stress and Food Craving

Cravings are generally defined as intense desires or urges to consume particular substances, most notably drugs (e.g., Miller & Goldsmith, 2001). While the exact nature of craving remains a controversial subject, craving is commonly believed to be a subjective state capable of motivating behavior (Rogers & Smit, 2000; Tiffany, 1990). Similarly to the hypothesized causal relationship between drug cravings and compulsive drug use (Tiffany, 1990), the construct of food cravings has been important for theories and treatments of eating disorders and of ingestive behaviors (Cepeda-Benito, Fernandez, & Moreno, 2003). This chapter will briefly describe the scientific evidence on food craving and stress, focusing primarily on overlapping between food and drug cravings.