Abstract
PurposeUnderstanding humans’ food intake practices is helpful in reducing health problems. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between eating behaviours and binge eating and to examine the influence of sex and weight status on these relationships.Design/methodology/approachA total of seventy-eight participants (39 with overweight; mean age: 38.1 ± 6.3 years; body mass index [BMI]: 25 ± 5.7 kg/m2) underwent measurements of binge eating, eating styles and body compositions. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed to predict binge eating as a function of eating styles and demographic variables.FindingsWomen presented higher levels of binge eating symptomatology and emotional eating than men. The analysis showed that age and gender did not emerge as important predictors of binge eating. In contrast, emotional and external eating and BMI were found to be important predictors of binge eating. The results indicate that higher emotional and external eating behaviour with higher BMI are important risk factors for binge eating in a non-clinical sample.Originality/valueIn this study, BMI was used as a causal factor rather than a consequence of deregulation of eating behaviour. An individual’s tendency to binge eat may be determined by BMI, emotional eating and sensitivity to environmental food stimuli. Understanding sex differences and causal relationships between eating behaviours is critical for the prevention and treatment of obesity and related health problems and for proper dietary management.
Highlights
Human behaviours related to food intake, which influence the frequency of eating, meal size, meal content and attitude to meals, are described as “eating behaviours.” Food intake and eating behaviour are the result of numerous complex regulatory mechanisms, including both homeostatic and hedonic/non-homeostatic processes and can manifest as eating in the absence of energy or metabolic deficits (Liu and Kanoski, 2018)
The results indicate that higher emotional and external eating behaviour with higher body mass index (BMI) are important risk factors for binge eating in a non-clinical sample
Emotional eating is one factor that may be related to overeating (Frayn and Knäuper, 2018), and to binge eating, that is characterized as the consumption of an unusually large amount of food over a short period of time coupled with feelings of loss of control during the eating episode [American Psychiatric Association (APA), 2013]
Summary
Human behaviours related to food intake, which influence the frequency of eating, meal size, meal content and attitude to meals, are described as “eating behaviours.” Food intake and eating behaviour are the result of numerous complex regulatory mechanisms, including both homeostatic and hedonic/non-homeostatic processes and can manifest as eating in the absence of energy or metabolic deficits (Liu and Kanoski, 2018). Many eating-related constructs have been proposed to explain obesity, such as emotional eating and binge eating, both of which emphasize loss of control over food intake. Emotional eating is one factor that may be related to overeating (Frayn and Knäuper, 2018), and to binge eating, that is characterized as the consumption of an unusually large amount of food over a short period of time coupled with feelings of loss of control during the eating episode [American Psychiatric Association (APA), 2013]. Emotional antecedents are neither required to trigger overeating such as binge eating (APA, 2013) nor is eating an unusually large amount of food over a short period of time required for emotional eating. Emotional eating and binge eating share negative consequences such as weight gain over time or possible development of obesity (Udo and Grilo, 2018)
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