Abstract
ObjectiveTo assess the associations between dietary cognitive restraint, disinhibited eating, and how taste and health perceptions relate to food preference; and further, whether cognitive restraint and disinhibited eating are associated with food preference decision reaction time.MethodsFive hundred and seventeen adults participated in the study. Dietary cognitive restraint and disinhibited eating were assessed using the shortened Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ-R18). Participants also completed a dietary decision-making task to examine their food-related decisions. Participants were presented with 50 food items and asked to rate them for health and for taste. Participants were then presented with a reference food item and comparison items one at a time and asked to indicate which of the two foods they would prefer to eat.ResultsParticipants with higher levels of cognitive restraint were more sensitive to health perceptions whereas those with higher levels of disinhibited eating were more sensitive to taste perceptions when indicating food preference. Reaction time analysis corroborated these results. Being classified as high for cognitive restraint was associated with faster reaction times if the preferred food was rated as healthier than the referent food. Conversely, being classified as high for disinhibited eating was associated with faster reaction times if the preferred food was rated as tastier than the referent food.ConclusionThe dietary decision-making task appears to capture distinct aspects of dietary restraint and disinhibition and may be useful in future studies to measure and/or alter levels of dietary restraint and disinhibition.
Highlights
Obesity has reached pandemic levels worldwide (Ng et al, 2014)
Cognitive Restraint and Food Preferences their energy intake (Keränen et al, 2009)] or disinhibited eating [the tendency to eat in response to social and emotional cues or the availability of palatable foods in the environment (Stunkard and Messick, 1985)] has been shown to have a statistically significant relationship to energy intake and weight
Supporting these findings, other studies have reported that individuals with higher levels of reported dietary cognitive restraint are able to maintain weight loss (Foster et al, 1998; Sarlio-Lähteenkorva and Rissanen, 1998; Westerterp-Plantenga et al, 1998; Drapeau et al, 2003; Chaput et al, 2007; Vogels and Westerterp-Plantenga, 2007) whereas those with higher disinhibited eating scores tend to have higher body weights (Lindroos et al, 1997; Fogelholm et al, 1999; Provencher et al, 2003; Dykes et al, 2004)
Summary
One of the most common strategies employed by individuals attempting to reduce weight is modifying their dietary intake to consume fewer calories (Kruger et al, 2004). To accomplish this, these individuals must often place themselves in a state of dietary cognitive restraint to control their eating behavior (Lowe and Kleifield, 1988). It has alternatively been argued that these real-world observations mean that restrained eaters are eating less than they would like to eat but not less than they need to eat to reduce their weight (Lowe and Levine, 2005)
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