clipped from: abcnews.go.com Our ancestors ate to survive. They ate because they were hungry or maybe to celebrate a victory over a warring tribe. Us? We eat because we're hungry, too, of course—but also when we're stressed, angry, bored, depressed, frustrated, busy, not busy enough, getting together with friends or ticked off that the Lions lost.
Stress may actually be the eating trigger that causes the most trouble. Many of us have high levels of chronic stress, whether it's from workload, relationship troubles or to-do lists that are longer than Route 66. Our bodies respond to this stress the way our ancestors' bodies did: triggering "fight or flight" chemicals in the brain that lead to calorie accumulation and fat storage. But the difference is that we have plenty of food at our disposal; they didn't. So we end up continually upgrading the size of our storage unit.