Emotions and eating

Question 1

What is restrained eating?

Answer 1

Deliberate cognitive effort to inhibit food intake to lose or maintain weight. (Heatherton & Polivy, 1991).

Question 2

What is disinhibition in eating?

Answer 2

A disruption of cognitive efforts to restrict food intake, leading to susceptibility to overconsumption. (Heatherton, Herman, & Polivy, 1991).

Question 3

What are key aspects of emotional eating?

Answer 3

Primarily associated with negative emotions (comfort eating).
Involves mood-enhancing properties of CHO/fatty foods.
Linked to escape theory (attempt to escape negative self-awareness).
(Heatherton & Baumeister, 1991).

Question 4

What are the five ways emotions impact eating behavior (Macht, 2008)?

Answer 4

Effects on food choice.
Suppression of food intake.
Undermining cognitive control (disinhibition).
Eating as a mechanism for regulating emotions.
Emotion-congruent modulation.

Question 5

What are the gender differences in stress-induced eating?

Answer 5

Males prefer meal-type foods and eat less under stress. (Grunberg & Straub, 1992; Stone & Brownell, 1994).
Females consume high-fat, highly palatable snack foods and feel guiltier. (Wansink, Cheney & Chan, 2003).

Question 6

What is the stress-eating paradox?

Answer 6

Stress can lead to overconsumption or underconsumption, depending on factors like the type of stress, individual differences, and restraint levels.

Question 7

What are physiological explanations for stress-induced eating?

Answer 7

HPA axis: Stress activates cortisol production, affecting appetite.
Opioidergic mechanisms: Stress relief via appetite stimulation for palatable foods.

Question 8

What are psychological explanations for stress-induced eating?

Answer 8

Escape theory: Overeating to shift attention from ego-threatening stimuli.
Limited cognitive capacity hypothesis: Stress limits cognitive capacity, leading to disinhibition in restrained eaters.

Question 9

What are cognitive demands in stress-induced eating?

Answer 9

Tasks requiring high cognitive effort can cause restrained eaters to overeat by reducing their ability to maintain self-control.

Question 10

What did Wallis & Heatherington (2004) conclude about cognitive demand and ego-threat?

Answer 10

Overeating occurred in both high cognitive demand and ego-threat tasks.
Restrained eaters were most affected by cognitive demand.
Emotional eaters overate only in ego-threat tasks.

Question 11

How can stress-induced eating be reduced?

Answer 11

Stress management tools (e.g., O’Connor, Armitage & Ferguson, 2015) can help mitigate stress-induced overeating.

Question 12

What did Greeno & Wing (1994) discover about stress and eating?

Answer 12

They identified the “stress-eating paradox,” showing conflicting evidence of stress leading to overeating or undereating, depending on individual differences and stressor types.

Question 13

What did Wardle et al. (2000) find about workload and eating?

Answer 13

During high workload periods, males and females consumed more energy-dense and fatty foods. Restraint predicted overeating tendencies in response to stress.

Question 14

Front: What did Lattimore & Caswell (2004) find about physical threat and eating?

Answer 14

Physical threat (e.g., cold pressor tasks) often suppresses food intake.
Cognitive load can divert restrained eaters’ attention, leading to disinhibition.

Question 15

What did Heatherton, Herman & Polivy (1991) conclude about ego threat and eating?

Answer 15

Ego threats (e.g., unsolvable tasks, speech anticipation) increase food intake in restrained eaters.
Physical threats decrease eating in unrestrained subjects.

Question 16

What did Newman, O’Connor, & Connor (2007) discover in naturalistic studies on stress and eating?

Answer 16

Daily hassles and high cortisol reactivity were linked to increased snacking.
High cortisol reactors showed greater associations between stress and disinhibited eating.

Question 17

What is the “Freshman 15” concept?

Answer 17

The “Freshman 15” refers to weight gain among first-year university students. Research shows restrained eaters are more likely to gain weight, particularly females, due to stress-related eating behaviors. Vadeboncoeur et al. (2015)

Question 18

What physiological mechanisms explain stress-induced eating?

Answer 18

HPA Axis: Stress activates cortisol, which affects appetite and food preferences.
Opioidergic Mechanisms: Chronic stress triggers cravings for palatable foods for stress relief (Lattimore & Maxwell, 2004).

Question 19

What psychological mechanisms explain stress-induced eating?

Answer 19

Escape theory: Overeating reduces self-awareness of ego threats (Heatherton & Baumeister, 1991).
Limited cognitive capacity hypothesis: Stress reduces cognitive capacity, leading to disinhibition in restrained eaters (Ward & Mann, 2000).

Question 20

What did Wallis & Heatherington (2004) find about cognitive demand and ego threat?

Answer 20

Emotional eaters overate only under ego-threat conditions.
Both cognitive demand and ego threat caused restrained eaters to overeat.

Question 21

What were the findings of Hill et al. (2022) on stress and eating?

Answer 21

Meta-analysis of 54 studies: Stress increased unhealthy food consumption and decreased healthy food intake.
Restraint moderated the relationship between stress and eating.

Question 22

What did Hafiz et al. (2023) reveal about university students and stress-related eating?

Answer 22

Stress from exams led students to overeat as a coping mechanism.
Emotional eating often occurred even without hunger.

Question 23

What are further explanations for stress-induced eating (Lattimore & Maxwell, 2004)?

Answer 23

Escape theory may fall under a broader limited cognitive capacity model.
Stress-induced eating in restrained eaters may also occur without stress or restraint but due to non-threatening cognitive loads (Lowe & Kral, 2006).