Emotions and eating - week/lecture 9

Question 1

3 models/theories for emotional eating

Answer 1

○ Negative emotions (comfort eating)
§ Mood enhancing properties of food (CHO/fatty foods)
○ Escape (from self-awareness) theory
§ Attempt to escape/shift attention from source of anxiety that causes negative self awareness (Heatherton and Baumeister, 1991) e.g. binge eaters
○ 5-way model of links between emotions and eating (Macht, 2008)

Question 2

5 way model of emotion and eating characteristics

Answer 2

• Integrative and comprehensive model
  
  • Individual characteristics and emotion
  • 5 ways emotions impact eating behaviour
  • Macht 2008

Question 3

5 way model of emotion and eating 5 components

Answer 3

1. Effect on food choice
   
   2. Suppression of food intake
   3. Undermine cognitive control
   4. Eating can be a mechanism for regulating emotions
   5. Emotion-congruent modulation

Question 4

conclusions from 5 way model of emotions and eating

Answer 4

So:
- Relationships are complex
- Negative and extreme emotions appear to have most comprehensive impact on food selection and eating behaviour
Food important mechanism by which we seek to modulate emotional experiences

Question 5

stress

Answer 5

• Aversive state where wellbeing is in jeopardy and perceived demands of situation outstrip or threaten to outstrip perceived resources to cope

Question 6

stress and eating

Answer 6

• Conflicting results
  
  • Stress eating paradox
  • Inconsistent definitions of stress
  • Difficult to measure
  • Physical vs emotional stress
  • Stress identity
  • Confounding mechanisms
  • General effect vs individual difference models
    ○ Greeno and Wing 1994

Question 7

gender differences in eating and emotions

Answer 7

• Males
  ○ Meal type food preferences under stress
  • Females
    ○ High fat, highly palatable snack foods
    ○ Feel more guilty after consuming comfort foods
    ○ Suggested more susceptible to stress induced eating (Wasnick, Cheney and Chan, 2003)

Question 8

do males eat less when stressed and women et more? studies

Answer 8

○ Grunberg and Straub 1992
○ Stone and Brownell 1994

Question 9

inconsistent findings for gender differences in emotinal eating

Answer 9

○ Barrington, Beresford, McGregor and White 2014
§ Gender did not mediate relationship between perceived stress and dietary choices
○ Wardle et al., 2000
§ High workload periods associated with higher energy and fat intake across males and females
§ Restraint predicted tendency towards overeating in response to stress
§ Because females are more restrained

Question 10

stress and eating - public speaking

Answer 10

• Anticipation of public speaking
  ○ Oliver, Wardle and Gibson 2000
  ○ 68 men and women stressed and unstressed
  ○ Eating behaviour, psych and physio characteristics of arousal assessed
  ○ Found little effect of restraint
  ○ Found stressed emotional eaters ate more sweet high fat foods and a more energy dense meal than unstressed and non-emotional eaters

Question 11

stress and eating - physical vs reaction time

Answer 11

• Physical threat e.g. fear, cold pressor
  ○ Lots of evidence to indicate underconsumption (direct physio effects)
  
  • Lattimore and Caswell 2004
    ○ Active vs passive coping
    § RT tasks vs cold pressor test
    ○ Restrained and unrestrained ppts
    ○ Repeated measures design

findings:
- restrained ate less in cold pressor and relaxation by unrestrained ate more in reaction time test

Question 12

stress and eating - ego threat

Answer 12

• High self awareness
  
  • Heatherton Herman and Polivy 1991
  • Physical vs ego threat
  • Restrained and unrestrained ppts
    ○ Anticipated electric shock (physical threat)
    ○ Completion of an unsolvable task (ego threat)
    ○ Anticipation of a speech
  • Taste test

Results:
- physical threat - decreased unrestrained eating and slightly increased restrained eating
- ego threat - increased restrained eating but no suppression on unrestrained eaters
- physical fear differs from general dysphoria

Question 13

naturalistic studies - daily hassles

Answer 13

• Daily hassles (Newman, O’Connor and Connor 2007)
  ○ 50 female high vs low cortisol reactors
  ○ Cortisol reactivity assessed (modified trier social stress test)
  ○ Snack intake diaries for 2 weeks
  ○ Association between daily hassles and snacking but only for high reactors
  ○ Restraint, disinhibition, emotional and external eating associated with increased snacking in high reactors only

Question 14

naturalistic studies - freshman 15

Answer 14

○ Vadeboncoeur, Townsend and foster 2015
○ Pliner and Saunders 2008
§ Role of restraint and accommodation

Question 15

naturalistic studies - uk vs europe

Answer 15

○ Stress associated with greater risk of both weight gain and weight loss in UK students (Selachius, Hamer and Wardle 2007)
○ Effect strongest in females (restraint?)
○ Physical activity

Question 16

hill et al 2022

Answer 16

• Systematic review and meta analysis of stress and eating behaviours in healthy adults
  
  • 54 studies
  • Stress associated with increased consumption of unhealthy foods and decreased consumption of healthy foods
  • Restraint was identified as sig moderator of relationship
  • Small effect sizes

Question 17

Explanations: emotion and food choice

Answer 17

1. Sensory - eating a food could alter mood via sensory/hedonic effects
   
   2. Physiological - mood/emotions influence physiological effect that change appetite or alteration of mood could occur via food choice (=also sensory/hedonic effects)
   3. Psychological - cognitive expectations; personality characteristics, low mood

Question 18

Physiological explanations for stress induced eating:

Answer 18

HPA axis

Opioidergic mechanisms
- Reward (stimulate appetite of palatable foods) and adaptive responses to stress and discomfort
- Opioid mediated relief of stress (via food selection)
- Subject to chronic activation and downregulation

Question 19

Psychological explanations for stress induced eating

Answer 19

escape theory

limited cog capacity hypothesis

Question 20

escape theory explanation for stress-induced eating

Answer 20

• Heatherton and Baueister (1991)
  - Overeating to shift attention from ego threatening stimulus causing aversive self-awareness
  - Affect self regulation
  - Distraction technique
  - Associated with threats to self image (self esteem, mood)

Question 21

Limited cognitive capacity hypothesis explanation for stress-induced eating

Answer 21

• Dieting and preoccupying cognitions associated with deficits in the functioning of WM components - e.g. Vreugdenberg, Bryan and kemps 2003
  - Ward and Mann 2000; boon et al., 2002
  § Disinhibited intake occurs in restrained eaters if there are limitations on their cog capacity (demanding tasks), regardless of any emotional component
  § At that stage, effects on emotional eaters unexamined

Question 22

cog demand vs ego threat
- Is ego threat a necessary precondition for disinhibition of restraint?

Answer 22

• Wallis and Heatherington (2004) compared effects of ego threat and cog demand vs a neutral condition using similar experimental manipulations (modifications of stroop colour naming task)
  
  • 38 females
  • 3 conditions
  • Mood measured at baseline, post-task, post-snack
  • 150g choc buttons
  • DEBQ restraint and emotional eating

results:
- Overeating relative to control observed in both tasks
- Restrained eaters increased intake after both tasks relative to control
- Emotional eaters increased intake after ego threat task only
- Positive association between RT and intake in all conditions for high restraint/low emotional: confirms limited capacity hypothesis

Question 23

Wallis and Heatherington 2009 study on ego threat and cog demand

Answer 23

• ego threat vs neutral
• predicted that ego-threat would guide restrained and emotional females towards a ‘forbidden’ snack food of chocolate rather than a low fat alternative of dried fruit
• not contingent upon neg mood

results:
- restraint status and snack intake after ego threat and neutral conditions
- similar amounts of both foods consumed in both conitions
- no effect of emotional eating
- restrained maintained restriction of chocolate in both conditions
unrestrained consumed similar amounts of dried fruit in each condition
- but restrained consumed sig less dried fruit in ego threat than in neutral task

Question 24

cog demand vs ego threat conclusions

Answer 24

• Cog demand and ego threat are both associated with overeating in vulnerable individuals
  
  • Effects depend on type and amount of food presented
    
    • Variety; single forbidden food vs alongside LF alternative
  • And on the characteristics of the consumer
    
    • In restrained eaters stress alters intake via cog shifts
    • In emotional, comfort eating (escape)

Question 25

Further explanations for stress induced eating:

Answer 25

• Escape theory conceptually subsumed by more generalisable limited cog capacity model - lattimore and maxwell 2004
  
  • Lowe and kral 2006
    
    • Stress induced eating in restrained eaters may not be caused by stress or restraint
      § Non threatening cog loads also associated with disinhibition
      § Adequate explanation for stress induced eating remains elusive