Search

Purpose: To systematically review evidence concerning disordered eating practices in dietary-controlled gastrointestinal conditions. Three key questions were examined: a) are disordered eating practices a feature of GI disorders?; b) what abnormal eating practices are present in those with GI disorders?; and c) what factors are associated with the presence of disordered eating in those with GI disorders? By exploring these questions, we aim to develop a conceptual model of disordered eating development in GI disease. Methods: Five key databases, Web of Science with Conference Proceedings (1900–2014) and MEDLINE (1950–2014), PubMed, PsycINFO (1967–2014) and Google Scholar, were searched for papers relating to disordered eating practices in those with GI disorders. All papers were quality assessed before being included in the review. Results: Nine papers were included in the review. The majority of papers reported that the prevalence of disordered eating behaviours is greater in populations with GI disorders than in populations of healthy controls. Disordered eating patterns in dietary-controlled GI disorders may be associated with both anxiety and GI symptoms. Evidence concerning the correlates of disordered eating was limited. Conclusions: The presence of disordered eating behaviours is greater in populations with GI disorders than in populations of healthy controls, but the direction of the relationship is not clear. Implications for further research are discussed.

Overweight is associated with a range of negative health consequences, such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal disorders, and premature mortality.1 One means to combat overweight is through encouraging people to eat more slowly.2 People who eat quickly tend to consume more3, 4 and 5 and have a higher body mass index,6, 7, 8 and 9 whereas people who eat more slowly feel sated earlier and eat less.10, 11, 12 and 13. Unfortunately, eating rate is difficult to modify, because of its highly automatic nature.14 In clinical settings, researchers have had some success changing behavior by using devices that deliver feedback in real time.15, 16 and 17 However, existing technologies are either too cumbersome18 or not engaging enough19 for use in daily life contexts. Training people to eat more slowly in everyday eating contexts, therefore, requires creative and engaging solutions. This article presents a qualitative evaluation of the feasibility of a smart fork to decelerate eating rate in daily life contexts. Furthermore, we outline the planned research to test the efficacy of this device in both laboratory and community settings

Objective: Recent work has shown that exposure to social norm messages may enhance the consumption of vegetables. However, the majority of this work has been conducted in laboratories, often with student populations. Little is known about whether this approach can be successfully used in other contexts. In this study, a poster featuring a message based on social norms was tested to examine whether it could increase and maintain the purchase of meals with vegetables in workplace restaurants. Method: A pretest–posttest design with 3 phases was used in 3 workplace restaurants in the United Kingdom. The first 2 weeks formed the preintervention phase, the second 2 weeks the intervention phase, and the last 2 weeks the postintervention phase. During the intervention phase only, posters containing a social norm message relaying information about vegetable purchases of other diners were placed in each restaurant. The main outcome measure was the percentage of meals purchased with vegetables, which was analyzed using Pearson’s chi-squared test. Results: Participants were judged to be male (57%), not overweight (75%), and under the age of 60 (98%). The intervention was positively associated with the percentage of meals purchased with vegetables: baseline versus intervention (60% vs. 64% of meals purchased with vegetables; p < .01); intervention versus postintervention (64% vs. 67% of meals purchased with vegetables; p < .01); and baseline versus postintervention (60% vs. 67% of meals purchased with vegetables; p < .001). Conclusions: Social norm messages may increase the purchase of vegetables in workplace settings.

Rationale Brain 5-HT2C receptors form part of a neural network that controls eating behaviour. 5-HT2C receptor agonists decrease food intake by activating proopiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus, but recent research in rodents has suggested that 5-HT2C receptor agonists may also act via dopaminergic circuitry to reduce the rewarding value of food and other reinforcers. No mechanistic studies on the effects of 5-HT2C agonists on food intake in humans have been conducted to date. Objectives The present study examined the effects of the 5-HT2C receptor agonist meta-chlorophenylpiperazine (mCPP) on food consumption, eating microstructure and blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) responses to food pictures in healthy female volunteers. Methods In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design, participants were randomized immediately after screening to receive oral mCPP (30mg) in a single morning dose, or placebo, in a counterbalanced order. Test foods were served from a Universal Eating Monitor (UEM) that measured eating rate and fMRI BOLD signals to the sight of food and non-food images were recorded. Results mCPP decreased rated appetite and intake of a palatable snack eaten in the absence of hunger but had no significant effect on the consumption of a pasta lunch (although pasta eating rate was reduced). mCPP also decreased BOLD fMRI responses to the sight of food pictures in areas of reward-associated circuitry. A post hoc analysis identified individual variability in the response to mCPP (exploratory responder-non-responder analysis). Some participants did not reduce their cookie intake after treatment with mCPP and this lack of response was associated with enhanced ratings of cookie pleasantness and enhanced baseline BOLD responses to food images in key reward and appetite circuitry. Conclusions These results suggest that 5-HT2C receptor activation in humans inhibits food reward-related responding and that further investigation of stratification of responding to mCPP and other 5-HT2C receptor agonists is warranted. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s00213-017-4764-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Because overconsumption of food contributes to ill health, understanding what affects how much people eat is of importance. The ‘bogus’ taste test is a measure widely used in eating behaviour research to identify factors that may have a causal effect on food intake. However, there has been no examination of the validity of the bogus taste test as a measure of food intake. We conducted a participant level analysis of 31 published laboratory studies that used the taste test to measure food intake. We assessed whether the taste test was sensitive to experimental manipulations hypothesized to increase or decrease food intake. We examined construct validity by testing whether participant sex, hunger and liking of taste test food were associated with the amount of food consumed in the taste test. In addition, we also examined whether BMI (body mass index), trait measures of dietary restraint and over-eating in response to palatable food cues were associated with food consumption. Results indicated that the taste test was sensitive to experimental manipulations hypothesized to increase or decrease food intake. Factors that were reliably associated with increased consumption during the taste test were being male, have a higher baseline hunger, liking of the taste test food and a greater tendency to overeat in response to palatable food cues, whereas trait dietary restraint and BMI were not. These results indicate that the bogus taste test is likely to be a valid measure of food intake and can be used to identify factors that have a causal effect on food intake.

Evidence suggests a role for self-reported working memory (WM) in self-reported food intake, but it is not known which WM sub-components are involved. It is also important to consider how individual differences in dietary restraint and disinhibition influence WM and the impact of this on food choice. The current study assessed the relationship between WM sub-components and food choice, using computerised measures of WM sub-components and a direct assessment of food intake. The role of dieting success (measured by restraint and disinhibition) as a distal predictor of food choice that influences food choices via WM, and the role of WM more generally in dieting success were investigated. Female undergraduate students (N = 117, mean age: 18.9 years, mean BMI: 21.6 kg/m2) completed computer tasks assessing three components of WM (updating, phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad) and a snack food taste-test. Greater visuospatial WM span was associated with a higher (lower) percentage of food intake that was low (high) energy dense. It was also found that unsuccessful dieters (high restraint, high disinhibition) had poorer visuospatial WM span and consumed a lower (higher) percentage of low (high) energy dense food. Visuospatial WM span significantly mediated the relationship between dieting success and percentage of low energy dense food intake. Further, dietary restraint was associated with poorer updating ability, irrespective of disinhibition. These findings suggest that better visuospatial WM is associated with a greater (reduced) preference for low (high) energy dense foods, and that deficits in visuospatial WM may undermine dieting attempts. Future work should assess whether the ability to deal with food cravings mediates the relationship between visuospatial WM and dieting success and investigate how WM may influence the mechanisms underlying behavioural control.

Item does not contain fulltext Eating rate is a basic determinant of appetite regulation, as people who eat more slowly feel sated earlier and eat less. Without assistance, eating rate is difficult to modify due to its automatic nature. In the current study, participants used an augmented fork that aimed to decelerate their rate of eating. A total of 114 participants were randomly assigned to the Feedback Condition (FC), in which they received vibrotactile feedback from their fork when eating too fast (i.e., taking more than one bite per 10 s), or a Non-Feedback Condition (NFC). Participants in the FC took fewer bites per minute than did those in the NFC. Participants in the FC also had a higher success ratio, indicating that they had significantly more bites outside the designated time interval of 10 s than did participants in the NFC. A slower eating rate, however, did not lead to a significant reduction in the amount of food consumed or level of satiation. These findings indicate that real-time vibrotactile feedback delivered through an augmented fork is capable of reducing eating rate, but there is no evidence from this study that this reduction in eating rate is translated into an increase in satiation or reduction in food consumption. Overall, this study shows that real-time vibrotactile feedback may be a viable tool in interventions that aim to reduce eating rate. The long-term effectiveness of this form of feedback on satiation and food consumption, however, awaits further investigation. 7 p.

Trait future time perspective measures the extent to which behaviour is dominated by a striving for future goals and rewards. Trait present time perspective measures orientation towards immediate pleasure. Previous research has explored the relationship between future and present time perspective and BMI with mixed findings. In addition, the psychological mechanism underlying this relationship is unclear. Self-control is a likely candidate, as it has been related to both BMI and time perspective, but the relationship between all of these concepts has not been examined in a single study. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine if trait self-control mediates the relationship between time perspective (future and present) and BMI. Self-report time perspective (ZTPI), self-control (SCS) and height/weight data were collected using an online survey from a mixed student and community sample (N = 218) with wide ranging age (mean 29, SD 11, range 18–73 years) and BMI (mean 24, SD 4, range 15–43). The results of a structural equation model including both facets of time perspective suggested that the traits are related yet distinct measures that independently predict BMI through changes in self-control. Bootstrap mediation analysis showed that self-control mediated the relationship between both future time perspective (95% CI, −0.10 to −0.02) and present time perspective (95% CI, 0.03 to 0.17), and BMI in opposite directions. Participants with higher future time perspective scores (higher present time perspective scores) had higher (lower) self-control, which predicted lower (higher) BMI. These results are consistent with previous research suggesting an important role for time perspective in health outcomes. Self-control likely mediates the relationship between temporal perspectives and BMI, suggesting that time perspective may be a target for individualised interventions.

There is interest in the hypothesis that social norms are a determinant of healthy and unhealthy dietary practices. The objective of our work was to assess the weight of evidence that experimentally manipulated information about eating norms influences food intake and choice. This systematic review of experimental studies examined whether providing information about other peoples' eating habits influences food intake or choices. To inform the review, three electronic databases (PsycINFO, MEDLINE, and the Social Sciences Citation Index) were searched during July 2012. A narrative approach was used to synthesize studies that examined the influence of norms on food choice and meta-analyses were used to synthesize the effect that informational eating norms have on quantity of food consumed. Fifteen experimental studies were reviewed. There was evidence that both high intake norms (Z=3.84; P=0.0001; standardized mean difference 0.41, 95% confidence interval 0.20 to 0.63) and low intake norms (Z=2.78; P=0.005; standard mean difference -0.35, 95% confidence interval -0.59 to -0.10) exerted moderate influence on amounts of food eaten. There was consistent evidence that norms influenced food choices; norm information indicating that others make low-energy or high-energy food choices significantly increased the likelihood that participants made similar choices. Information about eating norms influences choice and quantity of food eaten, which could be used to promote healthy changes to dietary behavior.

Negative processing biases towards valenced information are a hallmark of depression. We set out to test whether peripheral inflammation can induce such negative interpretation biases. Forty healthy adult men received Salmonella Typhi vaccination and placebo injections on two separate days, using a double-blind crossover design. Blood samples were taken at baseline, 5.5h and 8h post-injection. The participants completed the P1vital® Oxford Emotional Test Battery, which included a Facial Expression Recognition Task (in which a range of intensities of six emotional facial expressions are classified) and Emotional Categorisation and Recall tasks (in which personality descriptors are categorized as positive or negative, and also later recalled). Vaccination increased Interleukin-6 from 1.18 to a peak of 5.21pg/mL at 5.5h post injection (p

Fatigue and dysphoria are highly prevalent in patients with chronic medical diseases, characterized by impairments in motivated behavior. Inflammation has been proposed as a biological mechanism, but supporting evidence has mostly been accrued through animal studies and correlational human data, while experimental human studies have remained sparse. Hence, the current study tested the effects of induced inflammation on motivated and goal-directed behavior in humans. This double-blinded placebo-controlled within-subjects study (N = 40 healthy males, mean age = 25 SD = 5) used salmonella typhoid vaccination (0.025 mg; Typhim Vi, Sanofi Pasteur) to induce acute inflammation; saline was used as placebo-control. Participants completed a reward-learning task that assessed distinguishable aspects of motivational learning. These are contingency learning, i.e., association of Abstract symbols with monetary rewards/punishments; maintenance of reward-based responses, and goal-directed adaptation to an unannounced change in reward-contingencies. Vaccination increased IL-6 levels (vaccination + 419%; placebo −10%; p .001), confirming presence of inflammation. While in both vaccine and placebo conditions participants reached the same optimum performance level, vaccinated participants required more trials to reach this optimal level, indicating slower reward-based learning. Moreover, in the inflammation condition participants were less able to maintain optimal performance over successive trials and showed less goal-directed behavior, p’s .05. The current results provide the first human evidence that inflammation impaired motivated learning, specifically reducing stability and maintenance of motivated behaviors, and goal-directed behavior.

Obesity may accelerate cognitive aging and inflammation has been proposed as underlying mechanism. Using a 4-group design, the present study investigated associations of obesity and aging in relation to psychomotor speed and attentional processes using the Attention Network Test. Further, we tested to what extent these associations, if any, were mediated by inflammation. Ninety participants (61% male) were enrolled; 41 were classified as lean (mean BMI = 22.4) and 48 as obese (mean BMI = 33.1). Divided evenly over these weight-groups, 42 participants were young (mean age = 26; 21–35) and 48 were older adults (mean age = 71; 63–80). Blood was collected to assess the inflammatory marker IL-6. Both increasing age and obesity were independently associated with psychomotor speed (r=.688 and r=.318, respectively; p .001), as well as with higher inflammation (r=.266 and r=.638, respectively; p .05). Psychomotor slowing was also linked to elevated IL-6 (r=-.429, p .001). Inflammation fully mediated the association of obesity with psychomotor slowing, and partially accounted for age-related psychomotor slowing. After adjustment for psychomotor speed, the data provided no evidence for obesity- or inflammation-associated attention impairments. The present observations showed slower task-responses in obese individuals, consistent with an aging-like effect. Moreover, shown for the first time, inflammation mediated obesity- and age-related psychomotor slowing. Currently follow-up studies are testing other aging-like effects on cognition associated with obesity and the mediating role of inflammation.

Inhibitory mechanisms are thought to underpin the well-documented impairing effects of alcohol on attention. Here, we use a novel priming paradigm to investigate the effects of alcohol on inhibitory mechanisms in attention. Participants were assigned to an alcohol ( N=15), or placebo ( N=15) group. The dose of alcohol was 0.8 g/kg for males and 0.75 g/kg for females. Participants were asked to report figure reversals during presentation of the face–vase ambiguous figure. Prior to this, they were shown a prime that was either semantically relevant to the face–vase stimulus or was neutral. Semantic priming decreased the number of figure reversals in the first half of the test session in the placebo group but not in the alcohol group. The placebo group was also more likely than the alcohol group to report the first interpretation of the figure to be the same as the semantic prime. Prior presentation of a semantic prime had a stabilising effect on reversal rate, suggesting that the primed interpretation inhibited the alternate interpretation. The absence of an effect in the alcohol group is consistent with an alcohol-related impairment of this inhibition.

INTRODUCTION Sleep duration and quality have been associated with obesity. Sleep disturbance has been reported to be associated with stress and depression among non-obese populations, but these relationships have not been previously examined in the obese population. The objective of the current study was to examine the complex associations among sleep disturbance, quality of life, anxiety, and depression in a patient sample with severe obesity. METHODS Two hundred seventy consecutively recruited patients with a mean body mass index (BMI) of 47.0 kg/m² were studied. The correlation coefficient, multiple linear regressions, and structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis were used to evaluate the association between the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), Impact of Weight on Quality of Life-Lite (IWQOL-Lite) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). RESULTS The mean (standard deviation; SD) PSQI score was 8.59 (5.11), and mean ESS score was 8.84 (5.79). After controlling for potential confounders, poor sleep quality and excessive daytime sleepiness were found to be significantly associated of all the components of IWQOL-Lite; physical function (β = -0.32, β = -0.27; P < 0.01), self-esteem (β = -0.23, β = -0.30; P < 0.05), sexual-life (β = -0.30, β = -0.35; P < 0.05), public distress (β = -0.39, β = -0.39; P < 0.01), and work (β = -0.26, β = -0.48; P < 0.01). We also found that the PSQI global score had a positive significant association with anxiety (β = 0.29; P = 0.01) and depression (β = 0.31; P = 0.01) components of HADS. CONCLUSION Poor sleep quality was strongly associated with mood disturbance and poor quality of life among extremely obese patients. Future interventions are needed to address sleep disturbance to prevent further development of psychological co-morbidity and potentially worsening of obesity among these individuals.

Objective The impairing effects of alcohol on attention are well documented and are thought to involve inhibitory mechanisms. We used ambiguous figures (Face-Vase and Necker cube) to test whether the intentional control mechanism is more vulnerable to the effects of alcohol than the automatic mechanism. Method: Participants were assigned to an alcohol (Study 1, N=15; Study 2, N=18), placebo (Study 1, N=15; Study 2, N=20) or control (Study 1 only, N=10) group. The doses of alcohol were 0.8g/kg for men and 0.75g/kg for women. Participants were shown the Face-Vase and Necker cube figures and two variants of each, which were biased in varying degrees towards one interpretation. Study 1 assessed the automatic control mechanism by asking participants to report spontaneous reversals. Study 2 assessed the intentional control mechanism by asking participants to increase reversal rate. Results: In Study 1, reversal rate was similar for all groups, whereas in Study 2, the alcohol group reported more reversals than the control group, although this was true only for the biased versions of the Face-Vase illusion. Conclusions: The effect of alcohol on reversal rate is observed only during intentional reversals of semantically meaningful stimuli and only when the stimulus is biased. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Background: Cognitive processes such as attention and memory may influence food intake, but the degree to which they do is unclear. Objective: The objective was to examine whether such cognitive processes influence the amount of food eaten either immediately or in subsequent meals. Design: We systematically reviewed studies that examined experimentally the effect that manipulating memory, distraction, awareness, or attention has on food intake. We combined studies by using inverse variance meta-analysis, calculating the standardized mean difference (SMD) in food intake between experimental and control groups and assessing heterogeneity with the I2 statistic. Results: Twenty-four studies were reviewed. Evidence indicated that eating when distracted produced a moderate increase in immediate intake (SMD: 0.39; 95% CI: 0.25, 0.53) but increased later intake to a greater extent (SMD: 0.76; 95% CI: 0.45, 1.07). The effect of distraction on immediate intake appeared to be independent of dietary restraint. Enhancing memory of food consumed reduced later intake (SMD: 0.40; 95% CI: 0.12, 0.68), but this effect may depend on the degree of the participants’ tendencies toward disinhibited eating. Removing visual information about the amount of food eaten during a meal increased immediate intake (SMD: 0.48; 95% CI: 0.27, 0.68). Enhancing awareness of food being eaten may not affect immediate intake (SMD: 0.09; 95% CI: −0.42, 0.35). Conclusions: Evidence indicates that attentive eating is likely to influence food intake, and incorporation of attentive-eating principles into interventions provides a novel approach to aid weight loss and maintenance without the need for conscious calorie counting.

Expected liking is an important determinant of food choice and there is some suggestion that liking expectations are stable over time. Here we examine the impact that a recent ‘disappointing’ hedonic experience has on expected liking. In Study 1, we examine if a disappointing experience results in changes to expected liking one day after tasting and one week after tasting. In Study 2, we examine whether past frequency of eating a food determines whether a disappointing hedonic experience results in changes to expected liking. In Study 1, expected liking for a food was reduced 1 day after a disappointing experience, but not 1 week afterwards. In Study 2, past frequency of eating moderated whether expected liking for a food was reduced 1 week after a disappointing experience: expected liking of a infrequently eaten food was reduced, but not expected liking of a frequently eaten food. Liking expectations can be influenced by disconfirmatory hedonic experiences with a food product, but these effects are dependent upon the recency of the experience and the past frequency with which the food is eaten.

Rats with excitotoxic hippocampal lesions were trained on delayed nonmatching-to-sample (DNMS) with small goal boxes, containing complex objects, presented on a pseudo trial-unique schedule. A series of experiments then tested performance on repeated presentation of either the small object or large empty goal boxes. All rats acquired the nonmatching rule, but hippocampal-lesioned rats performed less well than controls on choice accuracy for the final 2 blocks of acquisition. In the study's main phase, the lesions impaired choice accuracy when the large empty boxes were used as stimuli. This deficit was ameliorated when the rats were tested with the small object boxes, although the performance of the hippocampal-lesioned rats was still below that of controls. These results extend previous reports of box size-dependent effects of hippocampal aspiration lesions on DNMS and suggest that selective damage to the hippocampus, not neuronal loss in adjacent structures or fiber tracts, is critical for the effect.

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: We hypothesised that living with type 2 diabetes would enhance responses to pictures of foods in brain regions known to be involved in learnt food sensory motivation and that these stronger activations would relate to scores for dietary adherence in diabetes and to measures of potential difficulties in adherence. METHODS: We compared brain responses to food images of 11 people with type 2 diabetes and 12 healthy control participants, matched for age and weight, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). RESULTS: Having type 2 diabetes increased responses to pictured foods in the insula, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and basal ganglia and, within these regions, the effect of the fat content of the foods was larger in participants with type 2 diabetes than in healthy controls. Furthermore, increased activation to food within the insula and OFC positively correlated with external eating, dietary self-efficacy and dietary self-care. In contrast, responses within subcortical structures (amygdala and basal ganglia) were positively correlated with emotional eating and rated appetite for the food stimuli and negatively correlated with dietary self-care. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: Type 2 diabetes is associated with changes in brain responses to food that are modulated by dietary self-care. We propose that this is linked to the need to follow a life-long restrictive diet.

What is the relationship between memory and appetite? We explored this question by examining preferences for recently consumed food in patients with amnesia. Although the patients were unable to remember having eaten, and were inclined to eat multiple meals, we found that sensory-specific satiety was intact in these patients. The data suggest that sensory-specific satiety can occur in the absence of explicit memory for having eaten and that impaired sensory-specific satiety does not underlie the phenomenon of multiple-meal eating in amnesia. Overeating in amnesia may be due to disruption of learned control by physiological aftereffects of a recent meal or to problems utilizing internal cues relating to nutritional state.

Eating behaviour is strongly influenced by social context. We eat differently when we are with other people compared with when we eat alone. Our dietary choices also tend to converge with those of our close social connections. One reason for this is that conforming to the behaviour of others is adaptive and we find it rewarding. Norms of appropriate eating are set by the behaviour of other people, but also shared cultural expectations and environmental cues. We are more likely to follow an eating norm if it is perceived to be relevant based on social comparison. Relevant norms are set by similar others and those with whom we identify. If a norm is relevant then there may be matching of behaviour to the norm, but this will depend on other factors, such as how much attention is paid to the norm, how concerned we are about social acceptance and the presence of other competing norms such as personal norms and consumption stereotypes. Norm matching involves processes such as synchronisation of eating actions, consumption monitoring and altered food preferences. There is emerging evidence that social eating norms may play a role in the development and maintenance of obesity. Social eating norms constitute a novel target for interventions to encourage healthier eating.

Background/Objectives: The relationship between response inhibition and obesity is currently unclear. This may be because of inconsistencies in methodology, design limitations and the use of narrow samples. In addition, dietary restraint has not been considered, yet restraint has been reported to moderate performance on behavioural tasks of response inhibition. The aim of this study was to investigate performance on both a food-based and a neutral stimuli go/no-go task, which addresses current design limitations, in lean and overweight/obese adults. The moderating role of dietary restraint in the relationship between body composition, response inhibition and snack intake was also measured. Subjects/Methods: Lean and overweight/obese, males and females (N=116) completed both a food-based and neutral category control go/no-go task, in a fully counterbalanced repeated-measures design. A bogus taste-test was then completed, followed by a self-report measure of dietary restraint. Results: PROCESS moderated-mediation analysis showed that overweight/obese, compared with lean, participants made more errors on the food-based (but not the neutral) go/no-go task, but only when they were low in dietary restraint. Performance on the food-based go/no-go task predicted snack intake across the sample. Increased intake in the overweight, low restrainers was fully mediated by increased errors on the food-based (but not the neutral) go/no-go task. Conclusions: Distinguishing between high and low restrained eaters in the overweight/obese population is crucial in future obesity research incorporating food-based go/no-go tasks. Poor response inhibition to food cues predicts overeating across weight groups, suggesting weight loss interventions and obesity prevention programmes should target behavioural inhibition training in such individuals.

Evidence suggests that college students are often unclear about how much alcohol is present in different drinks.To evaluate the abilities of students to estimate the alcohol contents of drinks, both in relative and absolute terms, and to examine how alcohol strength informs behavior.For 10 popular drinks that varied by alcohol content, beverage and volume, 209 UK university students rank-ordered the drinks according to total alcohol content and then estimated, for each drink, the number of UK "units" of alcohol contained and its percentage alcohol-by-volume (% ABV). Participants also reported the importance of drink strength as a factor in drink choice, and its influence in different scenarios.There was low but significant concordance between participants' rank-orderings of drinks by strength, and the correlation of mean ranks with correct ranks was also significant. However, their explicit estimates of the numbers of "units" in the drinks, and their % ABV values, often diverged dramatically from actual values. Participants tended to overestimate the unit contents of spirit-based drinks but underestimated the unit contents of beers and wine; women were consistently less accurate than men, typically making greater underestimates for commonly-consumed drinks. Over one-third of the sample reported that strength influenced drink choice, but its importance ranked below flavor and cost; drink strength might contribute to drink choice depending on the drinking situation. Conclusion/Importance: Young drinkers (women especially) have a poor awareness of the alcohol contents of different drinks, particularly wines and beers, but they make better judgments of relative strength.

By reducing energy density, low-energy sweeteners (LES) might be expected to reduce energy intake (EI) and body weight (BW). To assess the totality of the evidence testing the null hypothesis that LES exposure (versus sugars or unsweetened alternatives) has no effect on EI or BW, we conducted a systematic review of relevant studies in animals and humans consuming LES with ad libitum access to food energy. In 62 of 90 animal studies exposure to LES did not affect or decreased BW. Of 28 reporting increased BW, 19 compared LES with glucose exposure using a specific ‘learning’ paradigm. Twelve prospective cohort studies in humans reported inconsistent associations between LES use and body mass index (−0.002 kg m−2 per year, 95% confidence interval (CI) −0.009 to 0.005). Meta-analysis of short-term randomized controlled trials (129 comparisons) showed reduced total EI for LES versus sugar-sweetened food or beverage consumption before an ad libitum meal (−94 kcal, 95% CI −122 to −66), with no difference versus water (−2 kcal, 95% CI −30 to 26). This was consistent with EI results from sustained intervention randomized controlled trials (10 comparisons). Meta-analysis of sustained intervention randomized controlled trials (4 weeks to 40 months) showed that consumption of LES versus sugar led to relatively reduced BW (nine comparisons; −1.35 kg, 95% CI –2.28 to −0.42), and a similar relative reduction in BW versus water (three comparisons; −1.24 kg, 95% CI –2.22 to −0.26). Most animal studies did not mimic LES consumption by humans, and reverse causation may influence the results of prospective cohort studies. The preponderance of evidence from all human randomized controlled trials indicates that LES do not increase EI or BW, whether compared with caloric or non-caloric (for example, water) control conditions. Overall, the balance of evidence indicates that use of LES in place of sugar, in children and adults, leads to reduced EI and BW, and possibly also when compared with water.

The P1vital® Oxford Emotional Test Battery (ETB) comprises five computerized tasks designed to assess cognition and emotional processing in human participants. It has been used in between-subjects experimental designs; however, it is unclear whether the battery can be used in crossover designs. This is of particular importance given the increasing use of ETB tasks for repeated assessment of depressed patients in clinical trials and clinical practice. In addition, although satiety state has been reported to affect performance on some cognitive and emotional tasks, it is not known whether it can influence performance on the ETB. Two studies explored these issues. In Experiment 1, 30 healthy women were tested on the ETB on 4 separate occasions (each a week apart) in a within-subjects design. In Experiment 2, another 30 healthy women were randomized to either a satiated or a hungry condition, where they were given an ad libitum lunch of cheese sandwiches, before (satiated) or after (hungry) they were asked to complete the ETB. Experiment 1 demonstrated good test–retest reliability for the ETB. One of the tasks was free from practice effects, whilst performance on the other four tasks stabilized after the first two sessions. In Experiment 2, eating to satiety only affected performance on a single ETB task. These results suggest that the ETB can be used in crossover designs after two initial training sessions. Further, as a robust satiety manipulation had only a limited effect on a single ETB task, it is unlikely that appetitive state will confound ETB performance.

OBJECTIVES Priming a high level construal has been shown to enhance self-control and reduce preference for indulgent food. Subtle visual cues have been shown to enhance the effects of a priming procedure. The current study therefore examined the combined impact of construal level and a visual cue reminder on the consumption of energy-dense snacks. METHOD A student and community-based adult sample with a wide age and body mass index (BMI) range (N = 176) were randomly assigned to a high or low construal condition in which a novel symbol was embedded. Afterward participants completed a taste test of ad libitum snack foods in the presence or absence of the symbol. RESULTS The high (vs. the low) construal level prime successfully generated more abstract responses (p < .0001) and reduced intake when the cue-reminder was present (p = .02) but not when it was absent (p = .40). CONCLUSIONS Priming high construal level thinking reduces consumption of high energy dense snacks in the presence of a visual cue-reminder. This may be a practical technique for reducing overeating and has the potential to be extended to other unhealthy behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record

Item does not contain fulltext 1 p.

Eating with others has been shown to influence the amount of food eaten in a meal or snack. We examined whether choosing food in the presence of another person who is choosing either predominantly low-energy-dense or high-energy-dense foods affects food choices. A between-subjects laboratory-based study was used. A group of 100 young females selected a lunch-time meal from a buffet consisting of a range of high-energy-dense and low-energy-dense foods, in the presence of an ‘unhealthy’ eating partner (who chose predominantly high-energy-dense foods) or a ‘healthy’ eating partner (who chose predominantly low-energy-dense foods) or when alone. Participants in the ‘unhealthy’ eating partner condition were significantly less likely to choose and consume a low-energy-dense food item (carrots), than when choosing alone or in the presence of a ‘healthy’ eater. Choice of high-energy-dense food did not differ across the conditions, nor did the total energy consumed. These data suggest that social influences on food choice are limited in this context but the presence of an ‘unhealthy’ eating partner may undermine intentions to consume low-energy-dense foods.

The role of brain insulin signaling in the control of food intake in humans has not been thoroughly defined. We hypothesized that the hormone contributes to the postprandial regulation of appetite for palatable food, and assessed the effects on appetite and snack intake of postprandial versus fasted intranasal insulin administration to the brain in healthy women. Two groups of subjects were intranasally administered 160 IU insulin or vehicle after lunch. Two hours later, consumption of cookies of varying palatability was measured under the pretext of a taste test. In a control study, the effects of intranasal insulin administered to fasted female subjects were assessed. Compared with placebo, insulin administration in the postprandial but not in the fasted state decreased appetite as well as intake and rated palatability of chocolate chip cookies (the most palatable snack offered). In both experiments, intranasal insulin induced a slight decrease in plasma glucose but did not affect serum insulin concentrations. Data indicate that brain insulin acts as a relevant satiety signal during the postprandial period, in particular reducing the intake of highly palatable food, and impacts peripheral glucose homeostasis. Postprandial intranasal insulin administration might be useful in curtailing overconsumption of snacks with accentuated rewarding value.

Understanding the role of psychological factors involved in overeating is critical if we are to develop effective interventions to curb the rise of obesity that is associated with the modern food environment. Here we review recent experimental research on the role of cognitive processes such as learning and memory in eating behavior. From habituation to learning to associate the rewarding consequences of ingestion with food cues, we contemplate how learning about food has been influenced by the changing food environment. We also consider how learning and memory processes interact with satiety processes and how higher-level cognitive systems modulate responses to food cues. Finally, what we remember about eating episodes affects later eating. Encoding information about meals and snacks allows us to take into account recent energy intake and food enjoyment during later eating events. We suggest that interventions that encourage attentive eating might prove fruitful in helping appetite control.

Novel ways to increase liking and intake of food are needed to encourage acceptance of healthier food. How enjoyable we remember food to have been is likely to be a significant predictor of food choice. Two studies examined whether remembered enjoyment of eating a food can be increased and whether this makes individuals more likely to eat that food in the future. In Study One, a simple manipulation of instructing participants to rehearse what they found enjoyable about a food immediately after eating it was used to increase remembered enjoyment (relative to controls). In a separate study; Study Two, the effect of increasing remembered enjoyment on food choice was tested by examining whether the manipulation to increase remembered enjoyment resulted in participants choosing to eat more of a food as part of a later buffet lunch. The experimental manipulation increased remembered enjoyment for the food (Study One). A change in remembered enjoyment was shown to have a significant effect on the amount of a food participants chose to eat the following day for lunch (Study Two). The present studies suggest that remembered enjoyment can be increased via a simple act of rehearsal, resulting in a later increase in the amount of food chosen and eaten. Interventions based on altering remembered enjoyment of healthy food choices warrant further investigation.

Predictions about enjoyment of future experiences are influenced by recalling similar past experiences. However, little is known about the relationship between hedonic memories of past eating episodes and future eating behavior. We investigated recall of previous experiences of eating vegetables and the effect of recall on future predicted liking for and consumption of vegetables. British University undergraduate students were asked to retrieve memories of previous occasions when they ate vegetables and were asked to rate how enjoyable those experiences were (Study 1, n=54). The effect of different types of memory recall (including vegetable eating recall) and visualization of someone else eating vegetables (to control for priming effects) on predicted likelihood of choosing vegetables and predicted enjoyment of eating vegetables was examined (Study 2, n=95). Finally, the effect of recalling vegetable eating memories on actual food choice from a buffet was assessed (Study 3, n=63). It is reported that people recall positive memories of past vegetable consumption (P

Aims: To test whether the repeated consumption of alcohol in a particular environment leads to the emergence of a context-specific conditioned compensatory response (CCR) that can counter alcohol's impairment of inhibitory processes. Methods: Twenty-four participants consumed an alcoholic drink (males: 0.65 g/kg; females: 0.57 g/kg) in one context on three sessions and a matched placebo drink in a different context on three other sessions. At test, participants were split into two groups and consumed a novel alcoholic drink either in the context previously paired with alcohol or the placebo-paired context. On all sessions, participants were tested on two computer-based tasks that measured response inhibition: an affective go/no-go task and a stop-signal task (SST). Results: Over the conditioning trials, tolerance developed to alcohol's disinhibitory effects on the go/no-go task; moreover, on the test for conditioned responding, performance was less impaired for participants in the alcohol-paired versus the placebo-paired context. No tolerance was evident on the SST, and no CCR. Conclusion: Repeated consumption of alcohol in a particular environment can lead to the emergence of a context-specific CCR that counters some of alcohol's disinhibitory effects. Therefore, consuming alcohol in an unfamiliar context might produce stronger disinhibitory effects than would be apparent in a familiar drinking environment.

We investigated whether eating lunch mindfully, in contrast to eating with distractions or no particular focus, reduces later snack intake and if this is related to a measure of meal memory. The design was between-subjects with three conditions. Twenty-nine female undergraduate students either ate a fixed lunch while (1) focusing on the sensory characteristics of the food as they ate (food focus group), (2) reading a newspaper article about food (food thoughts control group) or (3) in the absence of any secondary task (neutral control group). Cookie intake later that afternoon was measured as well as rated vividness of memory of the lunch. Participants ate significantly fewer cookies in the food focus group than in both the food thoughts control group or the neutral control group. Rated appetite before the snack session was lower in the food focus group than in the other two groups and rated vividness of lunch memory was higher. Rated vividness of lunch memory was negatively correlated with snack intake. These results suggest that enhancing meal memory by paying attention to food while eating can reduce later intake and are consistent with the suggestion that memory plays an important role in appetite control.

Memory is likely to be important in food choice because many food likes and dislikes are learnt. Evidence suggests that the final few moments of an experience ('end effect') and the most intense moments of an experience ('peak effect') have a disproportionately large influence on hedonic memories. In Study 1 we examined whether the end effect bias is applicable to remembered enjoyment of a food and whether this holds true for restrained and unrestrained eaters. One hundred and four participants ate the same yoghurt but half the participants experienced a pleasant end and half a bland end (control condition). Although both the 'pleasant ending' and control group had a similar online enjoyment of the yoghurt, unrestrained eaters who experienced a pleasant end remembered it to have been significantly more enjoyable than those in the control condition. No end effect was observed for restrained eaters. In Study 2 we examined predictors of remembered enjoyment of a multi-item meal. Forty-six participants consumed and rated 5 buffet style food items as part of a lunch time meal. For unrestrained eaters, remembered enjoyment of the meal was only predicted by 'peak' online enjoyment of the most liked item. Participant's enjoyment of the first, last and least liked items did not predict remembered enjoyment. For restrained eaters, remembered enjoyment was not predicted by any of the four predictor variables. These results suggest that for unrestrained eaters key moments in eating experiences have disproportionately large influence on remembered enjoyment of eating.

In a social eating context individuals tend to match their food intake to that of eating companions, regardless of whether the other person is eating a large amount. However, relatively little is known about the underlying processes of food intake matching. Findings from behavioural mimicry research suggest that individuals may copy how those around them act in order to facilitate social interactions and ingratiate themselves. The present paper reports two studies which were designed to examine whether ingratiation strategies may in part explain social matching of food intake in young females. In Study 1, female dyads completed a problem solving task together whilst having access to chocolate M&M's. We hypothesised that the extent to which individuals have a need to be socially accepted (trait self esteem) and are competent in social interactions (trait empathy) would predict the degree of matching. In Study 2 we directly manipulated the desire to ingratiate by priming social acceptance in half of participants prior to eating popcorn in the presence of a high eating confederate. In Study 1, both self esteem and empathy were associated with degree of matching within female dyads. In Study 2, priming social acceptance reduced the matching effect in females. These findings suggest that desire for social acceptance may be an underlying cause of social matching of food intake.

The monoamine reuptake inhibitor sibutramine reduces food intake but the receptor subtypes mediating the effects of sibutramine on feeding remain to be clearly identified.The involvement of the 5-HT(2C) receptor subtype in the satiety-enhancing effects of sibutramine was investigated by examining the effects of co-administration of sibutramine with the selective 5-HT(2C) receptor antagonist SB 242084Microstructural analyses of licking for a glucose solution by non-deprived, male rats were performed over a range of doses of sibutramine to identify a selective satiety-enhancing dose (experiment 1). Similar analyses were performed after administration of a vehicle control, two doses of SB 242084 alone or two doses of SB 242084 in combination with sibutramine (experiment 2).Sibutramine at doses of 1-3 mg/kg selectively reduced glucose consumption via a reduction in the number of bouts of licking. Non-selective effects to increase latency to lick were only observed at the higher dose of 6 mg/kg. Co-administration of sibutramine (3 mg/kg) with SB 242084 (1 or 3 mg/kg) reversed the effect of sibutramine on bout number whereas either dose of SB 242084 alone had no significant effect.We confirm behaviourally selective effects of sibutramine on feeding and provide further support for the satiety-enhancing effects of sibutramine. Our data also provide evidence for the involvement of the 5-HT(2C) receptor in the satiety-enhancing effects of sibutramine although additional targets may have an impact, and further investigation of the molecular mechanisms underlying the efficacy of sibutramine as an anorectic is warranted.

In this study, we separated for the first time the learned liking for a particular level of sweetness in a familiar drink from the infantile delight in sweetness as such (“the sweeter, the better”). It is widely assumed that sensing a liked food or drink evokes a pleasurable experience, but the only psychological evidence for this assumption has been tongue movements that are elicited specifically by sweet taste in animals and human neonates. We found that adults felt such movements in response to drinking juice at both their personally preferred level of sweetness and levels they deemed so sweet as to be undrinkable. Yet only the intolerably strong level of sweetness elicited enjoyment of the experienced movements, elevation of mood, and a sense of smiling. Hence, the pleasure that adults experience during ingestion could be exclusively linked with the congenital sweetness reflex that sends mother’s milk down an infant’s throat.

To investigate whether alcohol-associated drink cues can elicit conditioned compensatory responses that counter alcohol's effects on cognition.A between-subjects design was used in which participants were randomly assigned to one of three drink groups: an alcohol-associated drink (lager based) or one of two drinks not usually associated with alcohol (a fruit squash-flavored drink or an apple schnapps-flavored drink; n = 15 per group). The amount of alcohol in each was the same: 0.65 g/kg body weight for men and 0.57 g/kg for women. Executive functions of inhibition, updating of working memory, and attentional set shifting were measured using the CANTABeclipse computerized test battery before and after alcohol consumption. Self-reported mood was measured, and participants provided ratings of the drinks' sensory and hedonic properties.Participants in the lager drink group showed less disinhibitory responding in an affective go/nogo task and less of a reduction in alertness than participants in the two other groups. The lager group was also faster to respond in the set-shifting task than the group given the "squash" (nonassociated) drink. There were no significant differences between the groups in how they evaluated the drinks' sensory/hedonic properties.These data provide provisional evidence to suggest that cues previously associated with alcohol in lager drinkers (particularly the taste and smell of lager) can elicit compensatory responses that counter alcohol's cognitive effects and its effects on alertness.