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Hunger increases negative and decreases positive emotions in women with a healthy weight
Although being “bad-tempered or irritable due to hunger” is commonly referred to as being “hangry,” shockingly, few research have looked at how hunger affects emotions. However, ladies who try to cut back on their eating may be caught in a vicious cycle of hunger and negative feelings. In other words, feeling hungry may cause bad feelings, which can cause overeating, and overeating can cause further restriction, which can cause more hunger. The purpose of this study by Ackermans et al. (2022) was to investigate the relationship between hunger and both happy and negative emotions in women with healthy BMIs and the contribution of subclinical eating disorder symptoms to this relationship. The Profile of Mood States and the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire and the were submitted by study participants, who were then randomly allocated to one of two conditions: hunger (fasting for 14 hours; n = 53) or satiation (eating breakfast before the study; n = 55). Analysis of the results revealed that women who were hungry reported more overall negative feelings (such as anger, tension, confusion, and fatigue) and less overall good emotions (such as a decrease in esteem-related affect and low vigor) than women who were full. Additionally, higher eating disorder symptoms were linked to decreased esteem-related affect in satisfied but not hungry women. Based on these findings, the authors highlight that practitioners and people in general should be aware of the harmful effects that dietary restriction has on mental health. Second, given that it has the potential to perpetuate eating pathology, clinicians and individuals alike should be cautious about relatively low esteem-related effects in patients who exhibit eating disorder symptoms when they are satisfied. [NPID: Hunger, negative emotions, positive emotions, emotion regulation, eating disorders, restriction, healthy weight]
Year: 2022
