Why Being ‘Stressed’ Is ‘Desserts’ in Reverse—The Effect of Acute Psychosocial Stress on Food Pleasure and Food Choice

Foods

Vita Ligaya Dalgaard¹  Derek Victor Byrne²  Nikoline Bach Hyldelund²  Barbara Vad Andersen² 

[1] Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark;Food Quality Perception and Society Team, iSense Lab, Department of Food Science, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark;

关键词: food pleasure;    food reward;    stress;    Leeds Food Preference Questionnaire;    wanting;    liking;   

DOI  :  10.3390/foods11121756

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The link between acute stress, food pleasure and eating behavior in humans by employing measures of individual reward mechanisms has not been investigated as of yet. Having these insights is key to understanding why many people experience a change in eating behavior when experiencing stress. Thirty-five Danes (mean age 21.71 years) underwent a stress-inducing and relaxation-inducing task based on a randomized cross-over study design. Both tasks were combined with the Leeds Food Preference Questionnaire, to investigate the effect of stress on specific measures of food reward. Furthermore, participants chose a snack, as a covert measure of actual food choice. The study found no effect on explicit liking, explicit wanting or relative preference. For implicit wanting, an effect was detected on high-fat sweet foods, with increasing scores for the stress-induced condition. Moreover, 54% chose a different snack following the stress-inducing condition. Interestingly, 14% chose to change their snack choice to no snack at all. Results suggest acute psychosocial stress can increase cravings for highly palatable foods for some, while for others an experience of loss of appetite prevails. Overall, this study points to a further understanding of why consumers have issues with making healthy food choices, ultimately affecting public health too.

【 授权许可】

Unknown