Emotions in overweight and normal-weight women immediately after eating foods differing in energy

Everyday mood and emotions after eating a chocolate bar or an apple

Emotional changes after eating chocolate were examined in everyday life. Thirty-seven healthy, normal-weight women ate a chocolate bar, an apple or nothing and rated their subjective state 5, 30, 60 and 90min after eating. Both chocolate and the apple reduced hunger, elevated mood and increased activation, but the effects of the chocolate were stronger. Eating chocolate was also followed by joy and, in some women, by guilt. Guilt responders experienced less intense positive emotions. Whereas positive emotional responses appear to be due to sensory pleasure and it's anticipation and may also be related to reduced hunger, guilt responses are probably induced by negative food-related cognitions.

Emotional influences on food choice: sensory, physiological and psychological pathways

Sensory, physiological and psychological mechanisms are reviewed that underlie emotional influences on food choice. Both moods and emotions are considered. Eating a meal will reliably alter mood and emotional predisposition, typically reducing arousal and irritability, and increasing calmness and positive affect. However, this depends on the meal size and composition being close to the eater's habit, expectations and needs. Unusual meals--e.g. too small, unhealthy--may negatively affect mood. Sweetness, and sensory cues to high energy density, such as fatty texture, can improve mood and mitigate effects of stress via brain opioidergic and dopaminergic neurotransmission. However, adaptation in these pathways, perhaps enhanced by inherited sensitivity, with chronic exposure to such sensory qualities, could lead to overeating of energy-dense foods and consequent obesity. Sweet, fatty foods low in protein may also provide alleviation from stress in vulnerable people via enhanced function of the serotonergic system. Moreover, in rats, such foods seem to act as part of a feedback loop, via release of glucocorticoid hormones and insulin, to restrain activity of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis during stress. However, this effect is also associated with abdominal obesity. In humans, a number of psychological characteristics predict the tendency to choose such foods when stressed, such as restrained or emotional eating, neuroticism, depression and premenstrual dysphoria, all of which could indicate neurophysiological sensitivity to reinforcing effects of such foods. Greater understanding of such predictive traits and the underlying mechanisms could lead to tailoring of diet to meet personal emotional needs.

Comportamento de restrição alimentar e obesidade

A obesidade é uma doença de alta prevalência no mundo e é responsável por sérias repercussões orgânicas e psicossociais, desde a infância até a vida adulta. O comportamento alimentar tem bases biológicas e sociais e, associado, à obesidade, torna-se um processo ainda mais complexo pelos aspectos psicológicos envolvidos, os quais se expressam por meio de humor depressivo, ansiedade, sentimento de culpa e, também, por mecanismos fisiológicos, como a resistência ao jejum na vigência de dietas restritivas. Há evidências de que, em indivíduos obesos, comportamentos de compulsão alimentar e ou restrição são mais freqüentes e parecem ser, em parte, responsáveis pelos fracassos observados no tratamento da obesidade. As restrições e auto-imposições das pessoas que fazem dieta, parecem ter um efeito rebote, resultando em compulsão alimentar, a qual pode associar-se a conseqüências psicológicas, como a perda da auto-estima, mudanças de humor e distração. As reflexões desta revisão sugerem que os programas para redução de peso corporal devem enfocar as bases do comportamento alimentar e desenvolver, efetivamente, ações interdisciplinares que permitam obter resultados eficazes no tratamento da obesidade.