Chocolate cake. Guilt or celebration? Associations with healthy eating attitudes, perceived behavioural control, intentions and weight-loss.

Food and eating are often associated with ambivalent feelings: pleasure and enjoyment, but also worry and guilt. Guilt has the potential to motivate behaviour change, but may also lead to feelings of helplessness and loss of control. This study firstly examined whether a default association of either 'guilt' or 'celebration' with a prototypical forbidden food item (chocolate cake) was related to differences in attitudes, perceived behavioural control, and intentions in relation to healthy eating, and secondly whether the default association was related to weight change over an 18month period (and short term weight-loss in a subsample of participants with a weight-loss goal). This study did not find any evidence for adaptive or motivational properties of guilt. Participants associating chocolate cake with guilt did not report more positive attitudes or stronger intentions to eat healthy than did those associating chocolate cake with celebration. Instead, they reported lower levels of perceived behavioural control over eating and were less successful at maintaining their weight over an 18month period. Participants with a weight-loss goal who associated chocolate cake with guilt were less successful at losing weight over a 3month period compared to those associating chocolate cake with celebration.

Emotional eating and its effect on eating behaviour after a natural disaster.

Emotional eaters are hypothesised to overeat in response to negative emotions or stress. However, the empirical evidence for such a moderating role is mixed. This study examined the effect of emotional eating on eating behaviour before and after the occurrence of a natural disaster (an earthquake) in a sample of predominantly middle-aged and older women. As expected, women who scored high on emotional eating reported an increase in overeating after the earthquake. This effect was qualified by an interaction: emotional eaters who reported high levels of post-earthquake distress reported an increase in overeating, whereas non-stressed emotional eaters and non-emotional eaters did not.

Perceived stress and freshman weight change: the moderating role of baseline body mass index.

The transition from high-school to university is a critical period of weight change. Popular media suggest that freshman students gain 15 lb (6.80 kg) of body weight during their first year at university (i.e., the freshman 15). In contrast, a recent meta-analysis calculated freshman weight gain to be 1.75 kg, with statistics suggesting that only a proportion of freshman students are prone to gain weight. Researchers are beginning to investigate how certain variables and interactions between such variables predict freshman weight status. The current study focused on body mass index (BMI) and psychological stress. In isolation, previous research has tested how these two variables predict freshman student's weight status. However, because BMI and stress interact to predict weight gain and weight loss in adult samples, the current study tested the interaction between student's baseline BMI and baseline stress levels to predict weight change in a New Zealand sample of freshman students (N=65). Participants completed two separate online surveys in March and October 2012 (i.e., New Zealand's academic year). Although only three students gained over 6.80 kg (i.e., the freshman 15), participants did gain a statistically significant 1.10 kg of body weight during the year. Consistent with previous research, students with a higher baseline BMI gained a higher amount of body weight. However, this main effect was qualified by an interaction between stress and BMI. Students who entered university with high levels of stress gained weight if they also had high BMIs; if they had lower BMIs then they lost weight. In order to reduce unhealthy levels of freshman weight change, vulnerable students need to be taught stress-reduction techniques and coping strategies early in the academic year.

Associating a prototypical forbidden food item with guilt or celebration: relationships with indicators of (un)healthy eating and the moderating role of stress and depressive symptoms.

The increase in obesity and the many educational messages prompting us to eat a healthy diet have heightened people's concerns about the effects of food choice on health and weight. An unintended side effect may be that such awareness fuels feelings of guilt and worry about food. Although guilt has the potential to motivate behaviour change, it may also lead to feelings of helplessness and loss of control. The current study examined the relationship between a default association of either 'guilt' or 'celebration' with a prototypical forbidden food item (chocolate cake), indicators of healthy eating and choosing food for mood regulation reasons. Following a 'diathesis-stress' perspective, the moderating roles of depressive symptoms and stress were examined. Although a default association of guilt was found to be harmless under some circumstances (i.e. under low stress), those who associated chocolate cake with guilt (vs. celebration) reported unhealthier eating habits and lower levels of perceived behavioural control over healthy eating when under stress, rated mood regulation reasons for food choice as important irrespective of their current affective state, and did not have more positive attitudes towards healthy eating. Implications for public health messages and interventions will be discussed.

Measuring Dietary Restraint Status: Comparisons between the Dietary Intent Scale and the Restraint Scale.

The measurement of young women's self-reported dietary restraint status is complex. Compared to Herman and Polivy's commonly utilized Restraint Scale (RS), Stice's Dietary Intent Scale (DIS) is less understood. Because the DIS is becoming a popular research tool, it is important to understand how this scale compares to more traditional measures of restraint. We conducted two correlational studies (Study 1 N = 110; Study 2 N = 216) to ascertain the similarities and the differences between the DIS and - as a comparison measure - the well-researched RS. We explored how the two scales were related to several body image variables (e.g., thin-ideal internalization); with a range of self-regulatory variables (e.g., dispositional self-control); with observed food intake during a taste test; and with 18-month weight change (Study 2 only). Participants were female University students and were not selected for dieting or disordered eating. Unlike RS scores, DIS scores were not significantly correlated with the majority of variables tapping into unsuccessful self-regulation. However, our data also highlighted similarities between the two restraint scales (e.g., association with 18-month weight-loss) and demonstrated that not only were participants' DIS scores un-related to unsuccessful self-regulatory variables, neither were they related to the variables tapping into successful self-regulation.

Focusing on media body ideal images triggers food intake among restrained eaters: a test of restraint theory and the elaboration likelihood model.

Although research consistently shows that images of thin women in the media (media body ideals) affect women negatively (e.g., increased weight dissatisfaction and food intake), this effect is less clear among restrained eaters. The majority of experiments demonstrate that restrained eaters - identified with the Restraint Scale - consume more food than do other participants after viewing media body ideal images; whereas a minority of experiments suggest that such images trigger restrained eaters' dietary restraint. Weight satisfaction and mood results are just as variable. One reason for these inconsistent results might be that different methods of image exposure (e.g., slideshow vs. film) afford varying levels of attention. Therefore, we manipulated attention levels and measured participants' weight satisfaction and food intake. We based our hypotheses on the elaboration likelihood model and on restraint theory. We hypothesised that advertent (i.e., processing the images via central routes of persuasion) and inadvertent (i.e., processing the images via peripheral routes of persuasion) exposure would trigger differing degrees of weight dissatisfaction and dietary disinhibition among restrained eaters (cf. restraint theory). Participants (N = 174) were assigned to one of four conditions: advertent or inadvertent exposure to media or control images. The dependent variables were measured in a supposedly unrelated study. Although restrained eaters' weight satisfaction was not significantly affected by either media exposure condition, advertent (but not inadvertent) media exposure triggered restrained eaters' eating. These results suggest that teaching restrained eaters how to pay less attention to media body ideal images might be an effective strategy in media-literary interventions.

Positive fantasies or negative contrasts: the effect of media body ideals on restrained eaters' mood, weight satisfaction, and food intake.

Although viewing media body ideals promotes body dissatisfaction and problematic eating among women (e.g., extreme restraint/overeating), some argue that women only report such negative effects because they think that they are meant to (i.e., demand characteristics). Because restrained eaters are trying to lose weight, they might be vulnerable to such media exposure. However, because of demand characteristics, evidence is mixed. Therefore, we minimized demand characteristics and explored whether media body ideals would trigger restrained eaters to report negative (negative mood, weight dissatisfaction) or positive (positive mood, weight satisfaction) effects. We also hypothesized that this change (negative or positive) would encourage food intake. Restrained and unrestrained eaters (n=107) memorized media or control images. Restrained eaters exposed to media images reported decreased weight satisfaction and increased negative mood, but their food intake was not significantly affected. Perhaps paying advertent attention to the images caused goal-related negative affect, which triggered restraint.

Preliminary support for links between media body ideal insecurity and women's shoe and handbag purchases.

Two studies examined the relationship between women's insecurity-arousing comparisons with female models and shoe/handbag ownership. Idealized media images appear capable of threatening some women's sense of attractiveness and it may be that as a result, accessorizing becomes particularly appealing because it helps increase physical attractiveness without drawing attention to one's figure, the object of the threatening comparisons. In Study 1 (N=922), a correlational study, the more women reported that they feel insecure when they see attractive female models, the more shoes they tended to own. In Study 2 (N=286), we manipulated whether women saw images of attractive female models or not. The more women exhibited insecurity following exposure to the images of attractive models, the more shoes and handbags they tended to own. In both studies, these effects did not hold for ownership of trousers, an item of clothing that draws attention toward one's body.