Distraction, the desire to eat and an expanded model of mindless eating (original) (raw)

Distraction, restrained eating and food intake: an experimental study of 'eating on the go'

To assess the impact of distraction on subsequent eating, 60 females consumed a cereal bar while watching TV, walking or talking, and their subsequent desire to eat and food intake were assessed. No effects were found for desire to eat. But while those higher in restrained eating consumed less overall and fewer calories after watching TV or talking, they consumed more overall and more calories (specifically five times more chocolate) if the cereal bar was eaten while walking. 'Eating on the go' may disinhibit restrained eaters either as a form of distraction or by offering a justification to overeat.

Situational effects on meal intake: A comparison of eating alone and eating with others

Physiology & Behavior, 2006

Eating in competition with other tasks has been shown to increase food intake, particularly when tasks are cognitively demanding. To test the hypothesis that social facilitation of eating occurs, in part, as a function of distraction which impairs the ability to self-monitor, eating with others was compared with eating alone or in front of the television. Using a repeated measure within-subjects design, thirty-seven participants (21 males) visited the laboratory 4 times to eat a buffet-style lunch ad libitum. All eating episodes were filmed. Energy intake (EI) was measured when participants ate alone (A), ate alone while watching TV (B), ate with two same sex strangers (C), and ate with two same sex friends (D) in a counterbalanced order. EI was significantly enhanced by presence of familiar others (D: 4565 ± 272 kJ, p b 0.001) and watching TV (B: 4350 ± 252 kJ, p b 0.05) compared to baseline (A: 3861 ± 200 kJ). Length of eating episode correlated significantly (p b 0.05) with EI, however, amount of time spent eating and looking at food differed by condition with a greater percentage of time focussed on food during baseline (p b 0.001). Eating with friends increased EI by 18% and eating in front of the TV increased EI by 14% relative to baseline. Engaging in conversation or watching TV draws attention away from the eaten food and can stimulate food intake. However, since eating with strangers also drew attention away from food but did not result in increased intake, social facilitation effects are not simply due to distraction. Thus food intake can be enhanced when attention to food and self-monitoring are impaired during distraction, however, this effect is moderated when eating with strangers.

Pleasure in the mind: Restrained eating and spontaneous hedonic thoughts about food

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2007

Two experiments examined the impact of exposure to social food cues on the spontaneous activation of hedonic thoughts about food in restrained and unrestrained eaters. Consistent with hypotheses, it was found that restrained eaters, but not unrestrained eaters, spontaneously activate hedonic food thoughts upon reading behavior descriptions that involved a palatable food item. Moreover, it was shown that the activation of hedonic food thoughts in restrained eaters occurred on-line. These Wndings are discussed in the context of a motivational account of eating-regulation and the possible role of the spontaneous activation of hedonic thoughts about food in the self-regulation of restrained eaters.

Self-Awareness, Task Failure, and Disinhibition: How Attentional Focus Affects Eating

Journal of Personality, 1993

Dieting and nondieting subjects were given either failure or neutral performance feedback on a problem-solving task. Failure subjects were then assigned to one of three self-awareness conditions: One group was forced to watch a video clip of themselves failing on the problem-solving task, one group was asked to watch a distracting video clip on bighorn sheep, and the final group was asked to sit quietly for 10 minutes. Subjects were then allowed to eat as much ice cream as tbey wanted. Only in those conditions which allowed-or promoted-low self-awareness (the failure/distraction and simple failure condition) did dieters sbow disinhibited eating. In the failure/videotape condition, which enforced high levels of self-awareness, eating in dieters remained itihibited. This supports the proposal that a reduction in self-awareness is necessary for lifting of inhibitions. Eating in nondieters was reduced in the failure/videotape and simple failure conditions, possibly because of the autonomic correlates of distress.

Eating habits and appetite control: a psychobiological perspective

Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 1999

An individual's eating behaviour is shaped by factors ranging from economic conditions and cultural practices to biological influences. The physiological system controlling appetite appears to be adapted to solving the problem of an unevenness of food supply across time, and is fairly permissive in its response to undereating and overeating. Consequently, when food is abundant, the diet is energy dense and energy expenditure is low, there is a strong tendency to become obese (i.e. obesity is better viewed as due to a ‘toxic’ environment than to faulty physiological control of appetite). Under such conditions the most common method of avoiding obesity is through the cognitive control of eating. However, dietary restraint and dieting are demanding tasks, and are associated with psychological costs, including significant impairment of cognitive performance. Restraint is also prone to disinhibition, with the result that it can sometimes undermine eating control, even leading to the ...

Effects of distraction on the development of satiety

British Journal of Nutrition, 2006

Two experiments explored the hypothesis that distraction causes a reduced sensitivity to the physiological and sensory cues that signal when to terminate a meal. In Experiment 1, eighty-eight females ate five 'Jaffa Cakes' either while distracted by a computer game or while sitting in silence. Analysis of the difference in rated hunger, fullness and desire to eat (pre-to post-intake) revealed that distracted participants experienced smaller changes in their desire to eat and fullness than did non-distracted participants. Experiment 2 assessed whether changes in ratings are attenuated because sensory-specific satiety (or a related process) fails to develop. Using a similar procedure, eighty-four females provided desire to eat, pleasantness and intensity ratings for Jaffa Cakes and for two 'uneaten' foods, both before and at three time-points after consuming five Jaffa Cakes. Non-distracted participants reported a reduction in their desire to eat the eaten food relative to the uneaten food (food-specific satiety), whereas distracted participants maintained a desire to eat all foods. Moreover, this difference between distracted and non-distracted participants was evident 5 and 10 min after the eating episode had terminated. The present findings invite speculation that distraction attenuates the development of sensory-specific satiety, and that this effect persists (at least for a brief period) after the distractor has terminated. More generally, this kind of phenomenon warrants further scrutiny because it holds the potential to contribute towards overeating, either by prolonging an eating episode or by reducing the interval between meals.

Desire for food and the power of mind

2015

In the Western world, overweight and obesity rates are high and continue to rise. Globally, 35% of adults are overweight, and 11% are obese (WHO, 2013). Obesity is related to many detrimental health consequences and a reduced quality of life . Examples include cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and psychological problems such as depression (e.g., . Ultimately, the cause of obesity is an energy imbalance, that is, more calories are consumed than are expended . This energy imbalance seems mainly due to the overconsumption of high-caloric palatable foods (Swinburn, Jolley, Kremer, Salbe, & Ravussin, 2006; Swinburn et al., 2009;. A more interesting question is why so many people have an unfavourable energy balance, which led them to be overweight, or even obese. So, why do so many people overconsume high-caloric palatable foods, while it is common knowledge that these foods are detrimental for your health and waistline? An obvious possibility seems that people's control of homeostasis is disturbed . However, at the very least, this homeostatic explanation is not sufficient, and non-homeostatic factors have been shown to play an important role . That is, people consume foods because of the expected experience of reward. Homeostatic and non-homeostatic factors may interact, as foods may for example become more attractive when one is hungry (e.g., Uher, Treasure, Heining, Brammer, & Campbell, 2006). So, an important contribution to the obesity epidemic likely is so-called hedonic hunger . That is, "some individuals experience frequent thoughts, feelings and urges about food in the absence of any short-or long-term energy deficit." (Lowe & Butryn, p. 432). Desire for food is reflected in the brain as food-cue-elicited activity in brain regions that are involved in reward processing, as listed in Frankort et al. (2012, p. 627): "the amygdala,