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Perception of being ‘food addict’ influences eating behavior in women
British women who were told they had high food addiction tendencies were more likely to consume fewer calories in a subsequent taste test vs. women told they had low food addiction tendencies, according to study findings published in Obesity.
"Our research found that participants who believed themselves to be 'food addicts' reduced the amount of time they were exposed to unhealthy foods and ate less as a result,” Helen K. Ruddock, of the department of psychological sciences at the University of Liverpool, United Kingdom, said in a press release. “This appears to be because the perception of being a food addict made them concerned about their eating behavior.”
In two studies, Ruddock and colleagues at the University of Liverpool and the U.K. Center for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies analyzed data from women who completed food-related computerized tasks and were given spurious feedback on their performance, which indicated that they had high, low or average food addiction tendencies.
In the first study (n = 62), researchers randomly assigned women to the low food addiction (n = 30) or high food addiction (n = 32) condition. The women completed modified, food-related versions of the valence implicit association task and a standard stop-signal task, which they were told would assess their addictive tendencies toward food. After each task, a bogus score was displayed; researchers then explained that the score reflected either a high or low tendency toward food addiction. Participants then completed one of two versions of a leading questionnaire to reinforce beliefs about their own level of food addiction. Participants were then offered a 50 g bowl of potato chips and 100 g of chocolate, instructed to consume as much as they wished, and to rate the foods on seven taste scales. After the taste test, participants rated their hunger, fullness and enjoyment of the foods.
In the second study (n = 85), participants completed the same tasks from the first study, with women randomly assigned to high addiction (n = 28), low addiction (n = 29) or average addiction (n = 28). In this study, researchers recorded dietary concern at baseline and after the taste test (indicating the extent participants believed they could control food intake) and time taken to complete the taste test.
In study 1, participants in the high-addiction condition consumed fewer calories than those in the low-addiction condition (P = .008). In independent t tests, participants told they had a high food addiction tendency consumed fewer calories from chocolate (P = .006) or potato chips (P = .113) than women told they had a low food addiction tendency.
The second study replicated the findings of the first, with women assigned to the high-addiction group consuming fewer calories than women in the low-addiction (P = .024) and average condition groups (P = .015). Total calorie intake did not differ between low- and average-addiction groups. In the second study, researchers found that dietary concern mediated the effect of the high-addiction condition, which reduced the amount of time participants willingly spent exposed to the foods during the taste test (beta = –0.06; 95% CI, –0.13 to –0.01).
“The inclusion of a control group in study 2 clarified that food intake decreased in the high-addiction condition and did not increase in the low-addiction condition,” the researchers wrote. “Specifically, our findings showed that leading people to believe that they are food addicts reduced exposure to and intake of snack foods, as opposed to a counterproductive effect of overconfidence in the group who were told they scored low in food addiction.” – by Regina Schaffer
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.