by Jane Ibude
Comfort eating is not a weakness, but when food becomes the only tool for managing pain, it is worth asking what else we need.

It is past midnight, and the day has worn you down to something thin and quiet. You are not exactly hungry, but you are in the kitchen, lifting the pot lid and reaching for the eba left over from lunch. Deep down, you know that your body does not need food at that moment. You eat it and feel better for a little while. Then you go to bed feeling full, perhaps guilty, yet somehow still not quite okay.

This scene is more common than we talk about. In my survey of 231 Nigerians, 30 people described food as their primary source of comfort. One respondent wrote something that stopped me completely: “I think I view food as a source of escapism. I use it to quiet down the noise in my head. Sometimes I just eat mindlessly, and the food just becomes a tool.”

Comfort eating is not a modern problem, nor is it specific to Nigeria, but the conditions that drive it- chronic stress, financial pressure, emotional exhaustion, and lack of access to other forms of relief- are very Nigerian, and the data shows it.

HOW IT SHOWS UP
Of the 30 people who said food is their comfort, 16 were male, and 14 were female; that is almost even. This challenges the idea that emotional eating is a woman’s issue, but it is a human one. The majority were between 19 and 30 years of age, the same generation we met in the previous column, young, financially stretched, and reaching for whatever gets them through the night.

30 respondents say food is their primary source of comfort right now.

39 people eat more when stressed or overwhelmed, with food filling the gap where other coping tools are missing.

27of the 30 comfort eaters report feeling anxious, overwhelmed or hopeless sometimes, often, or almost always

What the numbers do not show is the depth of what these people described. Surviving in this economy felt like “a chore,” “uncertain,” “overwhelming,” and for one person, simply “a rat race.” These are not people who are eating for pleasure. They are people for whom pleasure has largely left the building, and food is one of the last affordable substitutes left.

Surviving in this economy is waking up and saying: “What can you do to eat today?” One respondent wrote that. But for the comfort eaters in this survey, food is also the answer to a different question entirely: what can you do to feel something other than this?

Food will always carry an emotional weight in Nigerian culture. People turning to food when they are stressed is not the problem, but when it becomes the only door available, due to therapy being expensive, rest feels impossible, and the people you would normally talk to are carrying their own versions of the same weight.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE DOING
Most of the comfort eaters in my survey said prayer, family, and faith are also keeping them strong, which means food is not their only anchor; it is one of several. Some mentioned movies, reading, and games alongside food, which tells me that what people are actually looking for is relief, distraction, and a moment of softness in these hard days. Food just happens to be the most immediate and accessible version of that.

One person wrote that what keeps them going is “pacing my mind and my body, doing what is necessary and enough, but not beyond that.” That is actually a sophisticated and healthy approach to stress management. The comfort eating that sits alongside is a symptom of a system under too much pressure.

WHAT CAN ACTUALLY HELP
Research published through the World Health Organisation and the nutritional psychiatry literature is consistent: emotional eating is a normal human response to stress. The goal is not to eliminate it but to understand it, reduce its frequency when possible, and build other coping tools alongside it.

As a mental health nutritionist, here is what I recommend when food has become your primary comfort:

1. Name the hunger before you eat
Before you open the pot or fridge at midnight, pause for thirty seconds and ask: am I physically hungry, or am I tired, anxious, lonely, or overwhelmed? You do not have to stop eating, but knowing which hunger you are feeding is the first step toward addressing both.

2. Make the comfort food work harder for you
If you are going to eat for comfort, choose foods that also nourish. Eba with egusi gives you magnesium (the calming mineral). Warm pap with groundnut gives you tryptophan, which supports serotonin production (the feel-good hormone). The comfort can be real and nutritious at the same time.

3. Build one non-food comfort ritual
A ten-minute walk, a voice note/call to a friend, or five minutes of music with your eyes closed. Research shows that having even one additional coping tool significantly reduces the frequency of emotional eating.

Food is not the enemy. It is often the messenger. The midnight plate of eba is telling you that something in your day needed more softness than it got, and that is worth listening to.

Thirty people in my survey are using food to cope. That number is likely much higher in reality because comfort eating is something many of us do quietly and do not always name. If you recognised yourself here, you are human, my friend.

Jane Ibude is a mental health nutritionist and founder of Thrive and Heal Hub, a platform that creates safe spaces for Nigerians and people in the diaspora to unpack their experiences through food, culture and mental wellbeing.

5 ways to actively manage food noise

Pause before you open the pot
Ask yourself, am I physically hungry, or am I overwhelmed? You do not have to stop eating. Just name which hunger you are feeding before the first bite.

Choose comfort food that also heals
Eba with egusi gives you magnesium, which calms the nervous system. Warm pap with groundnut paste supports serotonin, the feel-good hormone. Comfort and nourishment can be on the same plate.

Slow the eating down deliberately
It takes twenty minutes for the brain to register fullness. Put the spoon down between bites, pause mid-plate, and give your body time to catch up with itself before reaching for more.

Build one non-food comfort ritual
A walk, a voice note to a friend, music with your eyes closed. Having even one other outlet reduces food noise significantly. Food does not have to be the only door.

Remove shame from the equation
Guilt after comfort eating makes the next episode more likely, not less. If you ate past hunger, do not punish yourself. Ask instead: what was I actually feeling? That question, without judgment, is where change begins.

Jane Ibude is a mental health nutritionist, researcher, author, and founder of Thrive and Heal Hub. She writes on The Unpack Nigeria, a weekly column on practical mental and physical well-being for Nigerians. She is also the author of Unpack to Clarity: A Pause for Mental Strength.