Media release

From: University of Technology Sydney (UTS)

More than two-thirds of people living with chronic pain reach for chocolate or other comfort foods to cope, with new research showing that eating offers pleasure, distraction and relief from negative emotions during pain flare-ups.

One in five people worldwide lives with chronic pain (pain lasting three months or more) making it a major public health issue. Comfort eating is a common response to pain, but this can lead to weight gain, which in turn can worsen pain and increase the risk of further health problems.

Professor Toby Newton-John, Head of the Graduate School of Health at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) says understanding the psychology behind comfort eating is crucial for developing effective pain management strategies and preventing a negative cycle.

“People who live with pain every day need to find ways of coping. We think about medication, physiotherapy or heat packs as pain management strategies, but we don’t usually think about food in the same way. Yet two-thirds of our sample said they turned to food at least once a fortnight when pain flared.”

The study, Eating to Feel Better: The Role of Comfort Eating in Chronic Pain, was published in the September issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, with co-authors Claudia Roche, Dr Amy Burton and Professor Newton-John.

The researchers surveyed 141 adults with chronic pain about why they reach for food when pain flares. The results showed the main reason for pain-induced comfort eating was ‘to have a pleasant experience’ (51.8%), followed by ‘distraction’ (49.6%) and ‘to reduce emotions’ (39%).

“That was the somewhat unexpected finding,” says Dr Burton, a lecturer in clinical psychology at the UTS Graduate School of Health.

“Comfort eating wasn’t just for the purpose of distraction or numbing negative feelings, although those were important too. For many, eating comfort foods provided a nice experience in their day and something to look forward to. If you’re living with pain all the time, that moment of pleasure becomes a pretty powerful motivator.

“There may also be a biological explanation. Research shows high-calorie foods can have a mild pain-relieving effect. Even in animal studies, rats in pain will seek out sugar. It seems it’s not just psychological. It's possible that there is a real analgesic property to these foods as well,” she says.

However, the comfort comes at a cost. Almost 40 per cent of participants in the study met the criteria for obesity, and Professor Newton-John warns that food-driven relief can become part of a vicious cycle, where each condition exacerbates the other.

“In the short-term, high-calorie food makes people feel better. It reduces pain symptoms and enhances pain tolerance. Long-term, it can fuel weight gain and inflammation, which increases pressure on joints and makes pain worse; and that can trap people in a spiral that’s very hard to break.”

Pain management programs usually focus on medication use and physiotherapy techniques. This research suggests a need to integrate dietary advice into pain management programs to offer alternatives to food coping mechanisms.

“We usually teach skills like relaxation, stretching exercises or how to pace activities, but we rarely talk about food in this context,” Professor Newton-John says. “This work shows we need to help people recognise if they’re using food as a pain-management tool and give them alternatives.”

At the same time, Professor Newton-John stresses the findings should not be used to blame people living with chronic pain for being tempted by a short-term fix.

“Managing daily pain is incredibly tough, and medication often only goes so far. It’s understandable that people reach for something that feels good. But awareness is key, both for clinicians and for patients, to escape this cycle.”