Is comfort food actually comforting for emotional eaters? A (moderated) mediation analysis

TY - JOUR

T1 - Is comfort food actually comforting for emotional eaters? A (moderated) mediation analysis

AU - van Strien, Tatjana

AU - Gibson, Edward Leigh

AU - Banos, Rosa

AU - Cebolla, Ausias

AU - Wilkens, Laura H.H.

PY - 2019/9/1

Y1 - 2019/9/1

N2 - immediate mood improvement appeared to be mediated by the palatability of the food, and that this effect was more pronounced for high than for low emotional eaters (Macht and Mueller, 2007a). This has not yet been formally tested using mediation and moderated mediation analysis. We conducted these analyses using data from two experiments on non-obese female students (n=29 and n=74). Mood and eating satisfaction in Study 1, and mood, tastiness and emotional eating in Study 2 were all self-reported. In Study 1, using a sad mood induction procedure, emotional eaters ate more food, and when mood was assessed immediately after food intake, ‘eating satisfaction’ acted as mediator between food intake and mood improvement (decrease in sadness or increase in happiness). In Study 2, where we measured the difference in actual food intake after a control or a stress task (modified Trier Social Stress Test), and assessed mood during the food intake after stress, we found significant moderated mediation. As expected, there was a significant positive mediation effect of tastiness between food intake and mood improvement in the high emotional eaters, but also a significant negative mediation effect of tastiness between food intake and mood improvement in the low emotional eaters. This suggests that tastiness promotes ‘comfort’ from food in female emotional eaters, but conflicts in non-emotional eaters with a tendency to eat less when stressed. In conclusion, palatable food may indeed provide comfort specifically for high emotional eaters during eating. © 2019, Elsevier. The attached document (embargoed until 01/09/2020) is an author produced version of a paper published in PHYSIOLOGY & BEHAVIOR uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self- archiving policy. The final published version (version of record) is available online at the link. Some minor differences between this version and the final published version may remain. We suggest you refer to the final published version should you wish to cite from it.

AB - immediate mood improvement appeared to be mediated by the palatability of the food, and that this effect was more pronounced for high than for low emotional eaters (Macht and Mueller, 2007a). This has not yet been formally tested using mediation and moderated mediation analysis. We conducted these analyses using data from two experiments on non-obese female students (n=29 and n=74). Mood and eating satisfaction in Study 1, and mood, tastiness and emotional eating in Study 2 were all self-reported. In Study 1, using a sad mood induction procedure, emotional eaters ate more food, and when mood was assessed immediately after food intake, ‘eating satisfaction’ acted as mediator between food intake and mood improvement (decrease in sadness or increase in happiness). In Study 2, where we measured the difference in actual food intake after a control or a stress task (modified Trier Social Stress Test), and assessed mood during the food intake after stress, we found significant moderated mediation. As expected, there was a significant positive mediation effect of tastiness between food intake and mood improvement in the high emotional eaters, but also a significant negative mediation effect of tastiness between food intake and mood improvement in the low emotional eaters. This suggests that tastiness promotes ‘comfort’ from food in female emotional eaters, but conflicts in non-emotional eaters with a tendency to eat less when stressed. In conclusion, palatable food may indeed provide comfort specifically for high emotional eaters during eating. © 2019, Elsevier. The attached document (embargoed until 01/09/2020) is an author produced version of a paper published in PHYSIOLOGY & BEHAVIOR uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self- archiving policy. The final published version (version of record) is available online at the link. Some minor differences between this version and the final published version may remain. We suggest you refer to the final published version should you wish to cite from it.

KW - eating behaviour

KW - comfort eating

KW - stress

KW - mood

KW - emotion

KW - mediation

U2 - 10.1016/j.physbeh.2019.112671

DO - 10.1016/j.physbeh.2019.112671

M3 - Article

SN - 0031-9384

VL - 211

JO - PHYSIOLOGY & BEHAVIOR

JF - PHYSIOLOGY & BEHAVIOR

IS - November 2019

M1 - 112671

ER -