Food and Mood: Is the Concept of ‘Hangry’ Real?

A recent study conducted in Austria used the method of experience sampling to examine the links between hunger and mood. Researchers asked participants to report their hunger and mood five times per day. Results showed that participants reported greater anger,...

Is Food Tastier When Consumed in Aesthetically Pleasing Environments?

Editor’s Note: The study of nutritional psychology (NP) involves exploring the influence of diet on psychological, cognitive, behavioral, perceptual, interoceptive, and psychosocial functioning and mental health. It also includes the reverse —which is exploring how our psychological, behavioral, and psychosocial...

PsychoNutritional Education Within Nutritional Psychology: A Study Linking Sugar Consumption with Adverse Health Outcomes

Within nutritional psychology, we explore the dietary and nutritional elements influencing the diet-mental health relationship. This involves identifying the processes and mechanisms through which our diet and dietary intake patterns influence our brain, behavior, and experience. Sugar intake is a...

Neuroimagine Study Identifies Patterns Of Neural Activity In Obese Persons

A neuroimaging study identified neural activity patterns specific to obese persons. These patterns allowed researchers to differentiate between obese and non-obese individuals based on the characteristics of their brain activity and psychological test scores with 77% accuracy. It was also...

Researchers Discover Immune Mechanism Linking Changes in Gut Microorganisms and Behavior after Chronic Stress

Stress is inevitable, but it can disturb our body’s physiological signaling mechanisms when it becomes chronic. These mechanisms are interlinked with the Microbiota Gut-brain axis (MGBA) and influence the diet-mental health relationship (DMHR) in many ways. Being a major immune...