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The epidemic of obesity and its related chronic diseases has provoked interest in the predictors of eating behavior. Eating in response to stress has been extensively examined, but currently unclear is whether stress eating is associated with obesity and morbidity. We tested whether self-reported stress eating was associated with worse glucose metabolism among nondiabetic adults as well as with increased odds of prediabetes and diabetes. Further, we investigated whether these relationships were mediated by central fat distribution. Participants were 1138 adults (937 without diabetes) in the Midlife in the US study (MIDUS II). Glucose metabolism was characterized by fasting glucose, insulin, insulin resistance (HOMAIR), glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA_1c), prediabetes, and diabetes status. Multivariate-adjusted analyses showed that stress eating was associated with significantly higher nondiabetic levels of …