Does stress affect food preferences? - a randomized controlled trial investigating the effect of examination stress on measures of food preferences and obesogenic behavior

Association between hedonic hunger and body mass index in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Hedonic hunger has been proposed as one of the important causes of obesity in recent years. In the present study, we systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed the relationship between hedonic hunger and body mass index (BMI) in healthy adults. PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus were searched until January 19, 2023. All English-language original observational studies conducted on healthy adult subjects, which used the Power of Food Scale (PFS) to evaluate hedonic hunger were included. Quality assessment was done using the Joanna Briggs Institute checklist, and StataMP-17 software was used for the meta-analysis. After screening, 25 observational studies with a total of 14457 participants were included. Twenty-four studies were cross-sectional, and one was a cohort study. Twenty-two studies examined both sexes, two studies were conducted only on women, and one study conducted analysis separately on men and women. The results of the meta-analysis showed a positive and significant association between hedonic hunger and BMI with a small effect size (r = 0.13, 95% CI: 0.08, 0.18). In addition, a positive significant association was observed between subscales of PFS ("food available", "food present", and "food tasted") and BMI. The association between hedonic hunger and BMI was not affected by the results of meta-regression analysis of %female, mean age & BMI, and sample size. In conclusion, there was a positive significant association between hedonic hunger and BMI, but the effect size was weak. Considering the low quality of included studies, we need longitudinal design studies considering the association between these two variables as a primary outcome for a more accurate conclusion.

Chronic stress is associated with reward and emotion-related eating behaviors in college students

Introduction

Stress is related to altered olfactory perception and eating behaviors. The current study investigated the association between chronic stress, food reward and perception of food and non-food odors among college students.

Methods

Sixty-one participants completed the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the Brief Daily Stressors Screening Tool (BDSST). The detective threshold and suprathreshold perception (pleasantness, intensity, and familiarity) of two food (chocolate, strawberry) odors and a non-food (rose) odor were measured. Food reward and macronutrient preference were measured using the computerized Leeds Food Preference Questionnaire and the Macronutrient and Taste Preference Ranking task, respectively. Reward-related eating, emotional eating and eating-related inhibitory control were measured by the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) and the Reward-Based Eating Drive Scale (RED) scales.

Results

Neither the perceived stress or the severity of daily life stressor exposure was related to odor sensitivity, however, the PSS score was significantly correlated with pleasantness for strawberry odor (r = 0.329, p = 0.013). Chronic stress (PSS and BDSST scores) was significantly correlated with the DEBQ emotional eating and reward-related eating measured by RED (all ps < 0.01). Moreover, the BDSST score was negatively correlated with subjective liking for low-calorie sweet foods (r = -0.46, p < 0.001).

Discussion

Together, our preliminary results suggest disassociated effect of chronic stress on odor perception and eating behaviors.

Association Between Perceived Levels of Stress and Self-Reported Food Preferences Among Males and Females: A Stated Preference Approach Based on the China Health and Nutrition Survey

Objective

Stress is a major public health challenge and is associated with undesirable eating behavior. This cross-sectional study aimed to explore whether there is an association between perceived level of stress and food preference among Chinese adults.

Study Design

Perceived level of stress was measured using the Chinese version of the 14-item Perceived Stress Scale, whereas self-reported food preferences were investigated by means of five food classification questions, including questions regarding the consumption of fast food, salty snacks, fruit, vegetables, and soft/sugary drinks.

Methods

The data were collected from the 2015 China Health and Nutrition Survey. Information of 8,216 adults (≥18 years) on perceived level of stress, self-reported food preferences, and other important covariates was available and analyzed.

Results

Perceived level of stress was negatively associated with a preference for fruit (β = −0.58, 95% CI: −0.81 to −0.34, p < 0.0001) and vegetables (β = −1.13, 95% CI: −1.41 to −0.85, p < 0.0001), while it was positively associated with a preference for fast food (β = 0.36, 95% CI: 0.08–0.64, p = 0.011) and soft/sugary drinks (β = 0.48, 95% CI: 0.30–0.66, p < 0.0001) after adjusting for potential confounders. No association between a preference for salty snacks and perceived level of stress was found in either men or women.

Conclusions

The present population-based study reported strong associations between perceived level of stress and self-reported food preferences among Chinese adults. Sex differences related to this association were also worthy of attention.

Brain-body responses to chronic stress: a brief review

In order to survive and thrive, organisms must adapt to constantly changing environmental pressures. When there are significant shifts in the environment, the brain and body engage a set of physiological and behavioral countermeasures collectively known as the "stress response". These responses, which include changes at the cellular, systems, and organismal level, are geared toward protecting homeostasis and adapting physiological operating parameters so as to enable the organism to overcome short-term challenges. It is the shift of these well-organized acute responses to dysregulated chronic responses that leads to pathologies. In a sense, the protective measures become destructive, causing the myriad health problems that are associated with chronic stress. To further complicate the situation, these challenges need not be purely physical in nature. Indeed, psychosocial stressors such as ruminating about challenges at work, resource insecurity, and unstable social environments can engage the very same emergency threat systems and eventually lead to the same types of pathologies that sometimes are described as "burnout" in humans. This short review focuses on very recent empirical work exploring the effects of chronic stress on key brain circuits, metabolism and metabolic function, and immune function.

Reduced Hedonic Valuation of Rewards and Unaffected Cognitive Regulation in Chronic Stress

Cognition can influence choices by modulation of decision-making processes. This cognitive regulation is defined as processing information, applying knowledge, and changing preferences to consciously modulate decisions. While cognitive regulation of emotions has been extensively studied in psychiatry, few works have detailed cognitive regulation of decision-making. Stress may influence emotional behavior, cognition, and decision-making. In addition, the brain regions responsible for decision-making are sensitive to stress-induced changes. Thus, we hypothesize that chronic stress may disrupt the ability to regulate choices. Herein, we used a functional magnetic resonance imaging task where fourteen control and fifteen chronically stressed students had to cognitively upregulate or downregulate their craving before placing a bid to obtain food. We found that stressed participants placed lower bids to get the reward and chose less frequently higher bid values for food. Nevertheless, we did not find neural and behavioral differences during cognitive regulation of craving. Our outcomes revealed that chronic stress impacts decision-making after cognitive regulation of craving by reducing the valuation of food rewards but not cognitive modulation itself. Importantly, our results need further validation with larger sample sizes.

Chronic stress increases susceptibility to food addiction by increasing the levels of DR2 and MOR in the nucleus accumbens

Background: Stress-related obesity might be related to the suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary- adrenocortical axis and dysregulation of the metabolic system. Chronic stress also induces the dysregulation of the reward system and increases the risk of food addiction, according to recent clinical findings. However, few studies have tested the effect of chronic stress on food addiction in animal models. Purpose: The objective of this study was to identify whether chronic stress promotes food addiction or not and explore the possible mechanisms. Method: We applied adaily 2 hrsflashing LED irradiation stress to mice fed chow or palatable food to mimic the effect of chronic stress on feeding. After 1 month of chronic stress exposure, we tested their binge eating behaviors, cravings for palatable food, responses for palatable food, and compulsive eating behaviors to evaluate the effect of chronic stress on food addiction-like behaviors. We detected changes in the levels of various genes and proteins in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), ventral tegmental area (VTA) and lateral hypothalamus using qPCR and immunofluorescence staining, respectively. Results: Behaviors results indicated chronic stress obviously increased food addiction score (FAS) in the palatable food feeding mice. Moreover, the FAS had astrong relationship with the extent of the increase in body weight. Chronic stress increased the expression of corticotropin-releasing factor receptor 1(CRFR1) was increased in the NAc shell and core but decreased in the VTA of the mice fed with palatable food. Chronic stress also increased expression of both dopamine receptor 2 (DR2) and mu-opioid receptor (MOR) in the NAc. Conclusion: Chronic stress aggravates the FAS and contributed to the development of stress-related obesity. Chronic stress drives the dysregulation of the CRF signaling pathway in the reward system and increases the expression of DR2 and MOR in the nucleus accumbens.