No haste, more taste: An EMA study of the effects of stress, negative and positive emotions on eating behavior

Abstract

Objectives: Stress and emotions alter eating behavior in several ways: While experiencing negative or positive emotions typically leads to increased food intake, stress may result in either over- or undereating. Several participant characteristics, like gender, BMI and restrained, emotional, or external eating styles seem to influence these relationships. Thus far, most research relied on experimental laboratory studies, thereby reducing the complexity of real-life eating episodes. The aim of the present study was to delineate the effects of stress, negative and positive emotions on two key facets of eating behavior, namely taste- and hunger-based eating, in daily life using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Furthermore, the already mentioned individual differences as well as time pressure during eating, an important but unstudied construct in EMA studies, were examined.

Methods: Fifty-nine participants completed 10days of signal-contingent sampling and data were analyzed using multilevel modeling.

Results: Results revealed that higher stress led to decreased taste-eating which is in line with physiological stress-models. Time pressure during eating resulted in less taste- and more hunger-eating. In line with previous research, stronger positive emotions went along with increased taste-eating. Emotional eating style moderated the relationship between negative emotions and taste-eating as well as hunger-eating. BMI moderated the relationship between negative as well as positive emotions and hunger-eating.

Conclusions: These findings emphasize the importance of individual differences for understanding eating behavior in daily life. Experienced time pressure may be an important aspect for future EMA eating studies.

Keywords: Eating styles; Ecological momentary assessment; Emotions; Hedonic eating; Naturalistic study; Stress; Taste.