Will the COVID-19 pandemic worsen the obesity epidemic?

Do emotions predict eating? The role of previous experiences in emotional eating in the lab and in daily life

Emotional eating is defined as an increase in eating following negative emotion. Self-reported emotional eating has been associated with physical health concerns. However, experimental and daily diary studies indicate that induced or naturally experienced negative emotions do not reliably lead to increased eating behavior in people without eating disorders, not even among self-professed emotional eaters. Emotional eating may depend on associations people have made between specific emotions and eating. We describe a set of studies with the overarching goal of determining whether accounting for the variation in people's associations between eating and different discrete emotions is the key to observing emotional eating. In both Study 1 (N = 118) and 2 (N = 111), we asked people to report on their tendency to eat following sadness and anxiety and determined how much they ate when induced to feel sad or anxious in the lab (Study 1) or experiencing these emotions in daily life (Study 2). We found no support for our hypotheses in either study; self-professed sad- or anxious-eaters did not eat more when induced to experience these emotions in the lab, or when experiencing these emotions in daily life. Thus, accounting for the variation in people's associations between eating and two discrete emotions, sadness and anxiety, is not the key to observing sad or anxious eating behavior in the lab or in daily life. Preregistration, materials, data, and code: https://osf.io/kcqej/ (Study 1) and https://osf.io/3euvg/ (Study 2).

A Humanities-Based Explanation for the Effects of Emotional Eating and Perceived Stress on Food Choice Motives during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Perceived stress affects emotional eating and food choices. However, the extent to which stress associates with food choice motives is not completely understood. This study assessed whether emotional eating mediates the associations between perceived stress levels and food choice motives (i.e., health, mood, convenience, natural content, price, sensory appeal, familiarities, weight control, and ethical concerns) during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic. A total of 800 respondents were surveyed in the United States in June 2020. Their perceived stress, emotional eating, and food choice motives were assessed by the Perceived Stress Scale, Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire, and Food Choice Questionnaire, respectively. Moderate to high levels of perceived stress were experienced by the majority (73.6%) of respondents. Perceived stress was significantly correlated with emotional eating (r = 0.26) as well as five out of nine food choice motives: mood (r = 0.32), convenience (r = 0.28), natural content (r = −0.14), price (r = 0.27), and familiarity (r = 0.15). Emotional eating was significantly correlated with four out of nine food choice motives: mood (r = 0.27), convenience (r = 0.23), price (r = 0.16), and familiarity (r = 0.16). The mediation analyses showed that emotional eating mediates the associations between perceived stress and five food choices motives: mood, convenience, sensory appeal, price, and familiarity. Findings were interpreted using theories and concepts from the humanities, specifically, folklore studies, ritual studies, and symbolic anthropology.