Abstract

BackgroundDiscretionary eating behaviour (“snacking”) is dependent on internal and external cues. Individual differences in the effects of these cues suggest that some people are more or less likely to snack in certain situations than others. Previous research is limited to laboratory-based experiments or survey-based food recall. This study for the first time examines everyday snacking using real-time assessment, and examines whether individual differences in cue effects on snacking can be explained by the Power of Food scale (PFS).MethodsEcological Momentary Assessment (EMA) study with 53 non-clinical participants over an average of 10 days. Multiple daily assessments: Participants reported every snack and responded to randomly timed surveys during the day. Internal and external cues were measured during both types of assessment. Demographic data and PFS scores were assessed during a baseline lab visit. Data were analysed using multilevel linear and multilevel logistic regression with random intercepts and random slopes as well as cross-level interactions with PFS scores.ResultsHigher individual PFS scores were associated with more daily snacking on average (B = 0.05, 95 % CI = 0.02,0.08, p < .001). More average daily snacking was associated with higher BMI (B = 1.42, 95 % CI = 0.19,2.65, p = .02). Cue effects (negative affect, arousal, activities, company) on snacking were significantly moderated by PFS: People with higher PFS were more likely to snack when experiencing negative affect, high arousal, engaging in activities, and being alone compared to people with lower PFS scores.ConclusionsPFS scores moderate the effects of snacking cues on everyday discretionary food choices. This puts people with higher PFS at higher risk for potentially unhealthy and obesogenic eating behaviour.

Highlights

  • Discretionary eating behaviour (“snacking”) is dependent on internal and external cues

  • To examine whether Power of Food scale (PFS) affected the overall number of snacks per participant and day, we predicted the individual means of snacks per day from individual PFS scores in a multilevel regression analysis, and we found that participants’ PFS scores significantly predicted the intercepts of snacks per day (B = 0.05, SE = 0.01; p < .001)

  • This study for the first time examined whether individual differences in appetitive behaviour towards food as measured by the Power of Food Scale (PFS) [19] manifest in differences in day-to-day snacking and the realtime effects of internal and external food cues in everyday life

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Summary

Introduction

Discretionary eating behaviour (“snacking”) is dependent on internal and external cues. This study for the first time examines everyday snacking using real-time assessment, and examines whether individual differences in cue effects on snacking can be explained by the Power of Food scale (PFS). Individuals are exposed to a multitude of food–related cues in their everyday lives, and both the number and density of these food-related cues have been implicated in whether someone eats or not [2,3,4,5]. We explore how people respond to internal and external snacking cues, and, importantly, whether there are individual differences in how these cues relate to snacking behaviour that can be explained using psychological variables.

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