Diet and Emotions/Emotional Eating

In this article by Hamburg et al. (2014), the authors investigate the inter-and intra-personal precedent factors and sequelae of offering food. The action of offering food represents one of the earliest biobehavioral governing exchanges that occur between parents and their children. Offering food secures the survival of a child who depends entirely on others to feed them, and the quality of these exchanges impact how a child may react to different situations in their life later on, with food offering contributing to regulation of emotions throughout the child’s life. Published works looked at different methods of emotional regulation including the act of offering food and consuming food, however, the objective centered on an intrapersonal point of view, and the information regarding interpersonal aspects remains insufficient. Following a review of literature, the author postulates that empathic emotion regulation (EER) is a key mechanism that can explain the interpersonal aspects observed, in that that the EER represents an interpersonal regulatory system of empathic responses to another person’s current emotional state, which helps modulate emotional responses within the provider themselves and between individuals. The authors insinuate that the empathic act of offering food is brought forward by the emotional state of the receiving party, and through this act, the empathic provider’s objective is to alleviate the receiver’s negative affect, and their own in tandem. Thus, the offering of food contributes to enhancing the positive affect for both parties if successful in inducing a change in the recipient’s affect. In addition, the authors postulate that sharing food and the utilization of food as a supportive behavioral mechanism enhances interpersonal connectedness. Adopting a developmental framework of thought, the authors argue that if the act of food offering as a supportive behavioral mechanism outperforms other supportive behaviors, children would be accustomed to utilize food as a soothing mechanism for themselves and others, which may lead to eating disorders and to diminishing the use of other available coping mechanisms. [NPID: Food offering, interpersonal processes, emotion regulation, empathic concern, eating]

In this study by Metin & Bakir (2021), 227 students from the faculty of health sciences were investigated for their relationship between mood and their adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Data analysis considered several variables (such as sociodemographics, income, academic performance, participation in social activities, and anthropometric measurements) when evaluating dietary adherence using the Mediterranean Diet Adaptation Scale, while the Beck’s Depression Scale and Profile of Mood States were utilized to assess mood. The results revealed that most study participants were adherent to the Mediterranean diet, reported a normal depression status, and demonstrated a substantial link between dietary adherence and mood states (tension, anger, energy, and fatigue). The authors comment on the necessity of examining the links between Mediterranean diet and depression in further detail, and the need to improve individual awareness of the links between mood and nutrition. [NPID: Mediterranean diet, mood states, Beck depression inventory]

This 2013 study induced a positive, negative, or neutral mood in a student sample, before measuring their food consumption, and assessing calorie intake and mood changes. Since emotional eaters are mostly presumed to eat in response to negative emotions, research on the impact of positive emotions is limited. The emotional eaters were expected to eat more than non-emotional eaters in the conditions testing their emotions, and more than in the neutral condition. There was evidence of emotional eaters consuming greater amounts of food when experiencing positive emotion, relative to the neutral emotion. Furthermore, emotional eaters appeared to eat more than non-emotional eaters. The number of calories consumed was related to the enhancement in mood after 5 minutes of eating. However, there was no clear difference in mood changes between the emotional eaters and the non-emotional eaters. Bongers et al. highlight the importance of positive eating in emotional eating. [NPID: emotions, emotional eating, mood, negative emotions, positive emotions]

Devonport et al. (2019) conducted a thorough search of four electronic databases to systematically review the relationship between emotions and eating behavior among normal and overweight adults, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The 29 articles included in the review (filtered from the initial 60,017 yielded by the search) were deemed poor in quality when considering randomization and controlling for confounding factors. Among the participants, body mass index scores varied from 19.73 to 28.4 kg/m2. The results showed that the subjects were more likely to eat in response to positive affect rather than negative, while their eating behaviors would fall outside of nutritional recommendations (for example consuming more or choosing unhealthy foods) as a result of stress, depression, and sadness. Heterogeneity may exist for the emotion and eating associations because of the role of moderators such as individual differences in dietary restraint and emotional eating, as well as methodological considerations (e.g. means of eliciting and measuring emotions). This systematic review also discusses what implications these findings have and provides recommendations for future research. [NPID: emotions, positive affect, negative affect, affect, emotional eating, stress, depression, sadness, dietary restraints]

Using the Emotional Appetite Questionnaire (EMAQ) and Latent Profile Analysis, the main objective of this study was to research the effect of positive emotions on emotional eating behavior. Numerous variables were investigated by comparing the eating profiles of 401 university students with factors including those already known to be associated with EE (perceived positive/negative feelings, depression, anxiety, stress symptoms, and impulsivity), BMI, risk for eating disorder, age, and sex. The findings were as follows: the degree of emotional distress and positive feeling were similar in Negative Emotional Overeaters (NEO) and in Negative Emotional Undereaters (NEU), although the risk of developing eating disorders shot up in both groups; and NEOs cut down on food intake in a positive way, were majority female, measured higher BMIs, and were more likely to act irrationally when faced with negative feelings. [NPID: emotions, emotional eating, external eating, depression, anxiety, stress, impulsivity, eating disorders]

This is a narrative review on the reasons emotional eating can develop, as well as its relation to depression and weight gain. Strien (2018) evaluates the possible pathophysiologies involved, including reversed hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) stress axis and consequences of high dietary restraint. The author also looks into poor interoceptive awareness, alexithymia, and emotion dysregulation, suggesting that parenting and genetics may play a role in the evolution of emotional eating (EE). The mediatory effect of EE on depression and obesity is strongly implicated; this could mean that emotion-regulating interventions are the answer to weight loss. [NPID: emotions, emotional eating, depression, weight gain, HPA, HPA stress axis, stress, emotional eating, obesity]

In this 2020 study by Bilici et al., the relationship between emotional eating behavior, tendency to eat palatable foods, and several risk factors was examined. A total of 2,434 adults aged 19-64 were given questionnaires. Results from the data collection showed that higher BMIs were associated with increases in negative emotions, negative situations, and negative total scores on the questionnaire (EMAQ) that assesses tendency to eat in response to both positive and negative, emotions and situations. Higher BMIs also correlated with increased frequency in palatable food consumption due to coping motives, as indicated by the Palatable Eating Motives Scale (PEMS). Further examination revealed a significant relationship between BMI and the social motives, rewarding, and conformity subscales of PEMS. Bilici et al. (2020) determined that exposure to negative emotion or situations may predispose people to experience more eating attacks. However, this study found it difficult to quantify the impact of this eating behavior based on BMI. [NPID: emotions, emotional processing, palatable foods, highly-palatable foods, negative emotions, coping mechanisms]

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]

The purpose of this 2020 study was to find potential disgust conditioning abnormalities that may play a role in the development of eating disorder symptoms. Participants with high (HED) and low eating disorders (LED) completed a Pavlovian conditioning procedure, in which disgusting videos of people vomiting were shown after the subjects were presented with a neutral food item (this is the conditioned stimulus) in addition to another neutral food item without the disgusting video (unconditioned stimulus). Following this procedure, these neutral food items were again demonstrated in front of the participants but were not reinforced with videos. Those individuals with high eating disorders rated the food that arrived after the disgusting videos as significantly more disgusting, reported significantly elevated fear levels and less willingness to eat, compared to the unreinforced food item. Whereas, the group with fewer eating disorder symptoms were not markedly affected by the conditioning procedure, demonstrating no marked differences in outcome measures. In the whole sample, distinguishable disgust responding was related to calorie consumption over the 24 hours following the conditioning procedure. Olatunji (2020) therefore believes some individuals prone to associating disgusting outcomes with otherwise ordinary food items may be predisposed to the development of eating disorders. [NPID: emotions, eating disorders, conditioning, disgust, fear]

Anderson et al. (2018) write that while fear and disgust are separate emotions both previously linked with eating disorders, it is possible that one is more strongly associated with eating disorders than the other. This study therefore aimed to discover the relative importance of fear and disgust in accounting for variance in eating disorder symptoms. Undergraduate men and women were recruited from a university in the northeastern United States and evaluated on disordered eating attitudes and behaviors, as well as fear and disgust responses to high-calorie food images, low-calorie food images, and non-food fear and disgust images. There were significant positive associations identified among fear, disgust, and EDE-Q global symptom scores (a measure of eating disorder psychopathology). Relative weight analysis results suggested that a disgust response to high calorie food images accounts for the greatest total variance in EDE-Q global symptom scores in men, while a fear response to high calorie food images accounts for the greatest total variance in EDE-Q scores in women. To conclude, there may be reasons to consider fear and disgust as two aspects of negative affect with different patterns of relative importance to eating disorder symptoms. [NPID: emotions, binge eating, fear, disgust, eating disorders]

In this 2012 study, 139 undergraduates were questioned on their behaviors when experiencing various emotions and given the emotional-eating scale with six extra items to measure their boredom. The study’s goals were to determine whether boredom-related eating is a different construct from eating driven by other negative emotions and to compare the endorsement of these two types of eating. The most frequently endorsed item on the emotional eating scale was identified as “eating when bored.” Participants also reported eating in response to boredom most often on the open-ended items on the scale. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that boredom is in fact a separate construct from other negative emotions, suggesting that it should be thought of as a different dimension of emotional eating. [NPID: emotions, emotion regulation, emotional eating, boredom, negative emotions]

Altheimer et al. (2021) conducted these two studies to determine if it is important to consider individual differences in the associations that people make between eating and specific emotions. The first study recruited 118 participants, while 111 individuals took part in the second study. Both studies asked their subjects to report on their tendencies to eat after experiencing sadness and anxiety, and measured their food intake after these emotional events. The difference between the two study designs was that the effects of sadness and anxiety were observed in the lab in study 1, while the focus of study 2 was the perceived influence of these emotions in daily life. The researchers hypothesized that consumption would be higher after inducing these emotions on self-professed sad or anxious eaters, but results did not suggest greater intake in either study. The conclusion was that sad or anxious eating behaviors are not determined by differences in people’s associations between eating and sadness and anxiety. [NPID: emotions, emotion regulation, emotional eating, sadness, anxiety]

In this study, Ferrell et al. (2020) examined whether working memory moderates the relationship between emotion regulation and emotional eating. The theory is that working memory plays a role in emotional control which, if deficient, becomes a risk factor for emotional eating. A group of college students was asked to perform a working memory task and was also questioned on emotional eating measures. These included depression, boredom, anxiety/anger (Emotional Eating Scale), and emotion regulation (Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale). Increased emotion regulation problems were related to emotional eating out of boredom only when working memory was slightly below average. However, associations between working memory, emotion regulation difficulties, depression, and anxiety-driven emotional eating were not found to be significant. These results may indicate that individuals with poorer working memory and greater difficulty controlling emotions, especially in tandem, may be more likely to eat emotionally due to boredom. [NPID: emotions, emotion regulation, emotional eating, memory, working memory, depression, boredom, anxiety, anger]