Why Stress Makes You Crave Junk Food

Why Stress Makes You Crave Junk Food Stress kills your appetite, until it doesn't. Chronic stress flips it and drives you to crave sugar and fat. Here's the science of stress eating: cortisol, your two stress systems, and why comfort food literally calms you down. A sudden scare kills your appetite. So why does a long, stressful week send you straight to the fridge at midnight? Same stress, opposite result, and it's not weakness. We break down your two different stress systems (acute vs chronic), how cortisol cranks up hunger and steers you toward sugar and fat, and the unsettling discovery that comfort food physically dampens your stress response, which is exactly why it's so hard to stop. Sources: Mary Dallman, UCSF, published in PNAS (2003) — comfort food and chronic stress; research on cortisol, ghrelin and leptin in appetite. What's your go-to comfort food when you're stressed? Tell me in the comments. Nothing is as random as you think.