Cognitive and emotional responses to food

The present study evaluated the cognitive and emotional responses to eating a high-calorie food. Restrained and unrestrained, normal-weight women were given either a high-calorie food or a low-calorie food and completed ratings of hunger and questionnaires concerning their emotional and cognitive states before and after eating. Finally, they were given a taste test, then debriefed, and interviewed about their experience of the study. The interview data and the psychometric results indicated that the restrained eaters experienced increased feelings of rebelliousness and defiance after both eating situations, with this increase being particularly pronounced after the high-calorie food. The unrestrained eaters did not show an increase in rebelliousness nor any differentiation between the high- and low-calorie foods. The restrained eaters also showed a decrease in anxiety after the high-calorie food. The results are analyzed in terms of recent theories of restrained eating and their implications for pathological eating regulation are discussed.