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Influence of emotions evoked by life events on food choice
Aguiar-Bloemer and Diez-Garcia (2018) set out to determine the impact of emotions specifically evoked by life events on food choice in both normal-weight and overweight women. The women (ages 25-42) were either shown a video of regular daily activities (to elicit neutral responses) or a video with scenes of common problems (to induce negative emotions), before being presented with sweet, salty, and healthy food items. There was an increase in energy intake in both normal-weight and overweight ladies as a result of exposure to the negative video, but a difference was identified in their food choices. Normal weight women ate more sweet foods only, whereas the overweight participants consumed more sweet and salty foods. Healthy foods were not chosen under this condition. This study provides evidence that food consumption may be set off by common life problems, especially if food is highly available. Since everyday issues are not likely to go away, high exposure to high-sugar or high-fat foods pose a great threat to weight gain and obesity. [NPID: emotions, emotion regulation, negative emotions, sugar, fat, weight gain, obesity]
Year: 2018
