The headlines are depressing; an endless, heartbreaking cycle of wars, environmental disasters, growing NHS waitlists and constant price hikes making the cost of living even more dire. It’s taking an emotional and financial toll, and now, experts are warning that the constant scrolling of miserable news posts on social media is also affecting our eating patterns.
What is doom eating?
“Doom eating refers to the act of overeating – often comfort foods – in response to seeing distressing news on social media or other platforms,” explains Dr Avinash Hari Narayanan, clinical lead at London Medical Laboratory. “The behaviour blends emotional eating with the passive consumption of a negative news cycle, forming a vicious cycle of stress and comfort, which leads to negative consequences.” Doom eating is not about being hungry but rather a coping mechanism for stress. “The word “doom” here signifies a detrimental action which can be used in different settings, such as doom scrolling and doom spending.”
Millennials and Gen-Z are most affected by doom eating. “The social media and online news generation, who spend several hours online each day, inevitably place themselves in a position of risk,” says Dr Narayanan, who also explains that women, who are two times more likely to develop eating disorders than men, as well as “individuals with underlying mental health issues” may be more vulnerable to this phenomenon.
What’s the link between comfort eating and stress?
Doom eating isn’t the only social media-based issue that touches on comfort eating. “The TikTok #stresseating trend, where users show themselves tucking into fast or fatty foods to relieve stress, is often presented humorously and reveals just how common this way of coping with modern pressures has become,” Dr Narayanan explains. “It also gives a false sense of safety in numbers. Just because many other people are indulging in stress eating doesn’t mean it’s okay.”
Doom eating technically works in the same way because comfort foods provide a temporary boost of joy from the feel-good chemicals they contain. “Comfort eating temporarily increases dopamine levels in the brain, particularly when consuming foods high in sugar, fat or salt. These ‘rewarding’ foods activate the brain’s pleasure pathways, providing a brief escape from negative emotion,” says Dr Narayanan. But this boost is short-lived, and the only way to counter the ensuing feelings of sadness – that don’t just come from consuming more bad news, but also the guilt of having eaten unhealthy foods and the physiological impact they have on us – is to eat more comfort food to produce more dopamine. “Over time, the brain’s pleasure circuits are reinforced against negative emotions, and a behavioural pattern begins, leading to a vicious cycle that can be difficult to break,” explains Dr Narayanan.
How can doom eating affect your day to day?
Someone who found herself stuck in this constant spiral is Ella, 26, from Hammersmith in London. “I probably spent up to five hours a day obsessively checking my news feeds, first thing before work and especially when I got back home – I often read new stories until 1.30am or later in bed,” she says of doomscrolling posts about violence against women and the war in Gaza, which left her feeling “depressed and powerless to intervene in any way”. To cope, she turned to foods like pizza, chocolate, crisps and ice cream. “I would usually snack while I was doing scrolling, without really being aware of it. If I was home alone, I would generally look at my phone while I was eating my evening meal, and then just continued to read news and eat more. It wasn’t always eating what we know to be bad stuff, such as Pringles and Wispa bars, but also lots of ‘healthy’ but calorific snacks, such as pistachio nuts.”
