Full of It
Wen-Bin Chiou, Chao-Chin Yang & Chin-Sheng Wan
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
The use of dietary supplements and the health status of individuals have an asymmetrical relationship: The growing market for dietary supplements appears not to be associated with an improvement in public health. Building on the notion of licensing, or the tendency for positive choices to license subsequent self-indulgent choices, we argue that because dietary supplements are perceived as conferring health advantages, use of such supplements may create an illusory sense of invulnerability that disinhibits unhealthy behaviors. In two experiments, participants who took placebo pills that they believed were dietary supplements exhibited the licensing effect across multiple forms of health-related behavior: They expressed less desire to engage in exercise and more desire to engage in hedonic activities (Experiment 1), expressed greater preference for a buffet over an organic meal (Experiment 1), and walked less to benefit their health (Experiment 2) compared with participants who were told the pills were a placebo. A mediational analysis indicated that perceived invulnerability was an underlying mechanism for these effects. Thus, a license associated with the use of dietary supplements may operate within cycles of behaviors that alternately protect and endanger health.
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Correlates of Overweight Status in Chinese Youth: An East-West Paradox
Ya-Wen Hsu et al.
American Journal of Health Behavior, July 2011, Pages 496-506
Objective: To examine the odds of overweight and related correlates in Chinese adolescents.
Method: Cross-sectional study in 9023 adolescents.
Results: Chinese youth were more likely to be overweight if they spent more time being sedentary; slept <7 hours/night; were male; were younger; participated more in vigorous physical activity; and had higher levels of parental education, a higher frequency of vegetable intake, and a lower frequency of sweet/fast food intake.
Conclusions: Overweight-related correlates seem to play different roles in the Chinese culture than in Western cultures. This may be due to culture-specific perceptions and changes in lifestyle accompanying socioeconomic transitions.
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Long-term habituation to food in obese and nonobese women
Leonard Epstein et al.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, August 2011, Pages 371-376
Background: Habituation is a form of learning in which repeated exposure to a stimulus leads to a decrease in responding. Eating involves repeated presentation of the same food stimulus in a meal, and habituation is reliably observed within a meal such that faster rates of habituation are associated with less energy intake. It is possible that repeated presentation of the same food over days will lead to long-term habituation, such that subjects habituate to foods repeated over meals. However, no research on long-term habituation to food in humans has been conducted.
Objective: The current study was designed to assess long-term habituation in 16 obese and 16 nonobese premenopausal women.
Design: Obese and nonobese women (aged 20-50 y) were randomly assigned to receive a macaroni and cheese meal presented 5 times, either daily for 1 wk or once per week for 5 wk.
Results: In both obese and nonobese women, daily presentation of food resulted in faster habituation and less energy intake than did once-weekly presentation of food.
Conclusions: Long-term habituation was observed when the same food was presented at daily meals but not when presented once weekly for 5 wk. These results provide the first evidence of long-term habituation to food in women and show that memory of food over daily meals can increase the rate of habituation and reduce energy intake.
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Can(not) take my eyes off it: Attention bias for food in overweight participants
Jessica Werthmann et al.
Health Psychology, forthcoming
Objective: The aim of the current study was to investigate attention biases for food cues, craving, and overeating in overweight and healthy-weight participants. Specifically, it was tested whether attention allocation processes toward high-fat foods differ between overweight and normal weight individuals and whether selective attention biases for food cues are related to craving and food intake.
Method: Eye movements were recorded as a direct index of attention allocation in a sample of 22 overweight/obese and 29 healthy-weight female students during a visual probe task with food pictures. In addition, self-reported craving and actual food intake during a bogus "taste-test" were assessed.
Results: Overweight participants showed an approach-avoidance pattern of attention allocation toward high-fat food. Overweight participants directed their first gaze more often toward food pictures than healthy-weight individuals, but subsequently showed reduced maintenance of attention on these pictures. For overweight participants, craving was related to initial orientation toward food. Moreover, overweight participants consumed significantly more snack food than healthy-weight participants.
Conclusion: Results emphasize the importance of identifying different attention bias components in overweight individuals with regard to craving and subsequent overeating.
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Daria Ebneter, Janet Latner & Kerry O'Brien
Personality and Individual Differences, October 2011, Pages 618-622
Abstract:
The current study investigated the relationship between just world beliefs and stigmatizing attitudes toward eating disorders and obesity. Further, the associations between stigma and causal beliefs, and between stigma and acquaintance with these conditions, were examined. Participants (n = 447) read four vignettes describing an individual with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, or obesity. After each vignette, participants completed questionnaires assessing stigmatizing attitudes, just world beliefs, causal beliefs, and acquaintance with the condition depicted in the vignette. Stronger just world beliefs were associated with greater stigma toward all three eating disorders, as well as obesity (rs ranging from -.11 to -.18). More stigmatizing attitudes were associated with greater attribution of individual responsibility for the development of the disorder. However, participants with personal experience or who knew someone with the depicted problem did not have lower stigma scores than those who did not. The current study suggests that justification ideologies such as just world beliefs and controllability beliefs may underlie the stigmatization of eating disorders and obesity. These findings provide support for stigma reduction efforts aimed at targeting justification ideologies and altering causal beliefs.
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Genetic Influences on Adolescent Eating Habits
Kevin Beaver et al.
Health Education & Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Behavioral genetic research shows that variation in eating habits and food consumption is due to genetic and environmental factors. The current study extends this line of research by examining the genetic contribution to adolescent eating habits. Analysis of sibling pairs drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) revealed significant genetic influences on variance in an unhealthy eating habits scale (h 2 = .42), a healthy eating habits scale (h 2 = .51), the number of meals eaten at a fast-food restaurant (h 2 = .33), and the total number of meals eaten per week (h 2 = .26). Most of the remaining variance was due to nonshared environmental factors. Additional analyses conducted separately for males and females revealed a similar pattern of findings. The authors note the limitations of the study and offer suggestions for future research.
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M. Siervo et al.
Obesity Reviews, forthcoming
Abstract:
High adiposity in middle age is associated with higher dementia risk. The association between weight loss and cognitive function in older adults is still controversial. A meta-analysis was undertaken to estimate the effectiveness of intentional weight loss on cognitive function in overweight and obese adults. A structured strategy was used to search randomized and non-randomized studies reporting the effect of intentional and significant weight loss on cognitive function in overweight and obese subjects. Information on study design, age, nutritional status, weight-loss strategy, weight lost and cognitive testing was extracted. A random-effect meta-analysis was conducted to obtain summary effect estimates for memory and attention-executive domains. Twelve studies met inclusion criteria. Seven were randomized trials and the remaining five included a control group. A low-order significant effect was found for an improvement in cognitive performance with weight loss in memory (effect size 0.13, 95% CI 0.00-0.26, P = 0.04) and attention/executive functioning (effect size 0.14, 95% CI 0.01-0.27, P < 0.001). Studies were heterogeneous in study design, sample selection, weight-loss intervention and assessment of cognitive function. Weight loss appears to be associated with low-order improvements in executive/attention functioning and memory in obese but not in overweight individuals.