Why You Crave What You Crave: How Sensory Triggers & Emotions Impact Food Choices

Ever wonder why you suddenly crave chips after seeing a commercial, or feel the pull of childhood comfort when you smell fresh-baked cookies? It’s not just coincidence — it’s science, memory, and marketing all working together.

Our food choices are influenced by more than just hunger. In fact, hunger often comes second to what we see, smell, hear, and feel—and the food industry knows this.

Let’s break down how sensory stimuli, emotions, and marketing impact your eating habits—and how to take back a bit of control with kindness, not restriction.

Food & Feeling: Why It’s Not Just About Nutrition

Food is deeply emotional. We hold memories in flavors—grandma’s soup, birthday cake, that one gas station snack from every road trip. These experiences get stored in our brains and bodies as sensory associations. A certain smell or texture can instantly make us feel comforted, safe, excited—or even anxious.

These memories are powerful. And marketers know it.

Marketing Is Designed to Trigger You (And It Works)

The processed food industry is built around hyperpalatability—a fancy word for food designed to be addictive. That crunch, that salt, that melting chocolate chip… it’s all crafted to hit your brain’s reward system like a slot machine.

Add in:

• Bright packaging

• Emotional commercials

• Strategic product placement

• Jingles and logos from childhood

…and suddenly, you’re making choices with your feelings, not your goals. And it’s not your fault—it’s intentional.

Why Emotional Eating Happens

Emotional eating isn’t just about sadness. It’s any time we eat to soothe a feeling—boredom, stress, joy, loneliness, celebration, or fatigue. Emotional eating becomes a go-to when:

• We’re disconnected from our body’s hunger cues

• We don’t have other tools to cope with emotions

• We’ve restricted food so long that “emotional” eating feels like relief or rebellion

  
  

The key is not to shame yourself. It’s to notice the pattern and add other tools to the toolbox.

Simple Strategies to Stay Grounded

You don’t have to outsmart your emotions—you just need a bit of preparation and awareness.

Here’s how:

1. Never Grocery Shop on an Empty Stomach

Going into a grocery store when you're hungry is like scrolling your ex’s Instagram at 1am — nothing good is coming from it. Eat a balanced meal (protein, fat, carbs) that's full of fibre (as all meals should be!) before you shop so your choices are led by logic, not impulse.

2. Ask Yourself: “Is This Hunger or Habit?”

Before reaching for a snack, pause and check in. Are you actually hungry—or just bored, stressed, needing stimulation, or triggered by something? Or maybe every night for the past year you've got used to sitting down with a bowl of chips and it's become a new habit despite being completely satisfied from dinner only 30 minutes prior. Either answer is okay—but knowing why you're reaching helps you respond instead of react.

3. Create Happy Rituals Around Food

Light a candle during meals. Use a nice plate. Sit down at the dining table with your kids. Enjoy conversation (maybe even FaceTime with a friend). Stop scrolling and watching tv during meals. Turning food into a positive sensory experience can help rewire your relationship with it in a nourishing way and will likely make you more excited about what you're eating as well. Cooking is so much more fun when you can enjoy it instead of scarfing it down cold while you're catching up on reels or the latest horrendous island lovers show.

4. Keep Foods Off Pedestals

When food isn’t labeled “bad” or “off-limits,” it loses some of its emotional power. Give yourself permission to enjoy those soul nourishing foods mindfully—without guilt. If you tell yourself you can't have it, you're only going to feel crazy when you're around it. Enjoy what you want mindfully and you'll be golden. Check out this blog post to learn more about labelling foods.

5. Start Building Emotional Regulation Tools

Journal, walk, text a friend, lift weights, stretch, breathe, create. Emotional regulation is a big one, and for a lot of us, we grew up in a time when it wasn't always taught to us. That's ok, because we are just humans experiencing life and we can learn new things any time. You can try new tools on your own (learning from books, research, friends, etc) but it can also be very helpful to seek the support of a therapist so that you can understand the root of where your emotional eating comes from. It's not an easy one to navigate because sometimes there's some really deep shit going on. Having an outside perspective can be really cool when we admit we can't do it all on our own. Food can still be comfort—but it doesn’t have to be your only comfort. Think - that bowl of grandmas biscuits and gravy to warm the soul on a gloomy fall day when you want to remember her presence, versus ripping open that old cupboard chocolate that you don't really even like because you had a bad day at work.

The Goal: Happy, Safe, & Intentional Eating

You don’t need to “cut out” food triggers—you need to understand them. When you recognize that your cravings are often tied to memories, marketing, and emotions, you start to make choices from a place of awareness, not autopilot.

Let your relationship with food be one of trust, joy, and curiosity—not fear or punishment.

The more you tune in, the more food becomes what it’s supposed to be: nourishment for your body and soul.

Remember: Perfect doesn't exist

There will be times when you lose control. There will be times when you say "f*$k this, I know that I could use a hug, or a long stroll outside, or some venting with a friend, but a bag of chips and gummy bears is going to soothe the soul tonight" and that's ok. The most important thing is that you are honest with yourself, and do NOT proceed to guilt yourself for doing so. You can acknowledge that there are better options for the next time you're not feeling great, and enjoy the damn chips - this is a practice in being mindful in itself!

I've experienced emotional binges and a lifetime of restricting and labelling foods as good, bad, treats, and cheats. I know just how hard it is to navigate your way out of that thinking and still have to practice every day - and I still fail on the regular. We are works in progress and that's ok.

Want to learn more about how to build a healthy, emotionally safe relationship with food and fitness? Let’s chat. My 1:1 coaching programs are designed to support your goals and your mental wellness—with zero shame and all the hype you deserve.

xo Shelb