How can feelings affect food choices

Given that emotions are rarely examined in the context of healthy eating, more research is needed to replicate the current findings. If indeed emotions are related to healthy food choices, helping students to be more mindful of their emotions may promote overall greater nutritional status. Previous studies have reported that boredom may be a frequent reason for snacking in college students [ 53 , 54 ]. For example, because this study found that positive emotions are positively associated with choosing sweet foods, future research may consider investigating whether strategies to temporarily regulate affect to more neutral states would sometimes be beneficial to overall eating behaviors.

This study is the first to examine within and between person associations of positive, negative, and apathetic emotions and food choices. Interestingly, there were few similarities in statistically significant findings across the within and between person findings. We observe a few more within-person findings than between person findings, suggesting that the effects are acute, short-term, and transitory in nature play out on a micro-timescale , particularly when reporting positive emotions in relation to food choices.

To date, most studies examining emotions and eating behaviors have focused on differences between individuals [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ]. While these current findings need to be replicated, future research may consider the examination of why we see more variation at the intra-individual level.

Additionally, these findings indicate why it is important to examine relationships at varying levels of analysis.

There are a number of strengths that should be taken into account when considering the findings of this study. This study is the first to examine the associations among negative, positive, and apathetic emotions and a relatively large variety of food choices. This reduced the risk of retrospective recall bias and ultimately provided ecologically-valid data for this study. The app was developed in both android and iPhone operating systems so that participants used their own mobile phones to complete the mEMAs.

The observational study design used here allows for examination of how variables covary together over time, it does not allow for causal inferences. Additionally, the data came from a convenience sample of first-year college students at a single university; therefore, the findings may not generalize to other emerging adults who are not first-year college students or to students in other universities. Eating choices were examined as groups of food based on previous formative work and were designed to keep the assessments brief [ 39 ].

However, the specific foods and the quantity of food within each group that were consumed is unknown; as such, we are unable to examine under- and overeating behaviors as they are associated with food choices. Additionally, it is possible that with certain response sets i. Given that positive emotions were associated with both healthy and unhealthy food choices, individual response patterns may account for the observed findings. The measures in this study were self-reported, which could result in recall bias; however, mEMA methodology may have minimized this bias.

Very little is known about how emotions are associated with food choices, especially in first-year college students. Apathetic emotions were not associated with any of the food choices. The findings from this mEMA study add to the small body of literature that exists regarding emotions and food choices, providing a better understanding of the food choices that first-year college students make.

Future research should continue to assess more specific food choices as well as how positive, negative, and apathetic emotions affect quantity of foods consumed.

These findings can be used to develop and test interventions that encourage healthy food choices among first-year college students and ultimately reduce the risk of weight gain.

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Obesity Silver Spring. Dunton GF, et al. Using ecologic momentary assessment to measure physical activity during adolescence. Am J Prev Med. Mapping the social and physical contexts of physical activity across adolescence using ecological momentary assessment. Ann Behav Med. Dunton G, et al. In the video below, Prof. Susan Duncan from Virginia Tech explains that her research focuses on the role of sensory evaluation. With the help of FaceReader, she can capture how people are responding emotionally to products.

The results of the study showed that expressions induced by different food tastes vary when comparing healthy people with people suffering from DD. The research team conclude that many factors are of high importance in the analysis of food choices. Bartkiene, E. BioMed Research International , 4, DOI: Get the latest blog posts delivered to your inbox - every 15 th of the month.

Want to learn more? Download the free guide "How to build a Consumer Lab"! All rights reserved. Behavioral Research Blog - Human behavior research - Emotion. What influences our food choices? Facial expression analysis to evaluate food induced emotions Over participants were involved in the study. The researchers used two methods to gather their data: A questionnaire to evaluate perceptions of healthy eating, sources of information about healthy diets, and emotional motivations associated with food choices and eating practices FaceReader software to evaluate possible differences in food induced expressions The latter method was performed with 80 participants.

Don't miss out on the latest blog posts. Consumer behavior , emotions , FaceReader , facial expression analysis. Simply put, emotions can play a huge role in terms of our eating habits. These foods might provide a temporary or short-term feeling of comfort but in the long run lead to unresolved issues and negative health consequences. Important: This content reflects information from various individuals and organizations and may offer alternative or opposing points of view.

It should not be used for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. As always, you should consult with your healthcare provider about your specific health needs.

How can my emotional state affect my eating habits?