Background: Emotional eating is an increasingly recognized behavioural response among university students, often triggered by academic stress, psychological distress, and lifestyle transitions. It is characterized by eating in response to emotions rather than physiological hunger and has been associated with unhealthy dietary patterns, obesity, and poor mental health. Understanding the prevalence of emotional eating and its influence on food choices is essential for developing effective health promotion strategies in university settings.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of emotional eating and examine its association with nutritional choices among university students.

Methodology: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among 200 undergraduate and postgraduate students aged 18–25 years using simple random sampling. Data were collected using a structured socio-demographic questionnaire, the Emotional Eating Scale (EES), Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ), 24-hour dietary recall, and anthropometric measurements. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 26.0. Descriptive statistics, independent t-test, Chi-square test, Pearson's correlation, and binary logistic regression were applied, with statistical significance set at p < 0.05.

Results: Of the 200 participants, 42.5% exhibited moderate emotional eating, while 25.0% demonstrated high emotional eating, indicating an overall prevalence of 67.5% for moderate-to-high emotional eating. Female students had significantly higher emotional eating scores than males (27.62 ± 7.14 vs. 23.84 ± 6.52; p = 0.002). Emotional eating was significantly associated with higher consumption of fast foods, fried snacks, and sugar-sweetened beverages, and lower intake of fruits and vegetables (p < 0.001). Emotional eating showed a significant negative correlation with the Healthy Eating Index (r = –0.49, p < 0.001) and positive correlations with body mass index (r = 0.36) and perceived stress (r = 0.58). Logistic regression identified academic stress (AOR = 3.21, 95% CI: 1.92–5.38), poor sleep quality (AOR = 2.18, 95% CI: 1.29–3.69), female gender (AOR = 1.86, 95% CI: 1.05–3.28), and breakfast skipping (AOR = 1.92, 95% CI: 1.12–3.31) as significant predictors of emotional eating.