Navigation
Internal states and interoception along a spectrum of eating disorder symptomology
In this study by Datta et al. (2021), the authors investigate the impact eating disorders induce on interoception in a population of 99 college students, being a particularly vulnerable population to eating disorders and the practice of dieting trends. The participants were divided randomly into two groups, consuming either a high-calorie or a low-calorie shake in the middle of the day. The authors scored participants on eating disorder symptoms using data on their happiness, satiety, energy levels before and after the intervention, their perception of the caloric content of the shake, and mood changes. The authors observed that participants with lower levels of eating concerns felt fuller after consuming the high-calorie shake, while participants who had higher levels of eating concerns felt happier after consuming the high-calorie shake. Participants who ate more freely than their peers were able to guess the caloric content of the shake more accurately depending on how full they felt, however, participants who restricted their dietary intake were unable to do so. The authors conclude that interoceptive abilities could be directly influenced by disordered eating, in addition to the subject’s level of dietary restraint and concerns. The initial data suggests that the inability to comprehend and acknowledge visceral signals more readily could be linked to eating disorder symptomatology and occur at an earlier point in time than expected for this population. [NPID: Appetite, eating concern, interoception, mood, satiety, subclinical]
Year: 2021
