Outline and Evaluate Factors Influencing Attitudes to Food and Eating Behavior.

675 Words3 Pages
Low mood can often result in comfort eating, although occasionally it seems to have the opposite effect. Studies seek to investigate the effect of mood and distress on eating often look for either hypophagia( excess under-eating) or hyperphagia( excessive eating) as well as changes in patterns of consumption and food preferences. Odgen(2007) introduced a masking hypotheses where he observed that dieters who overeat in response to low mood may be seeking to mask their negative mood( dysphasia) with a temporary heightened mood induced by eating. Also, other people might get carbohydrate-craving syndrome in response to their low mood where they have an irresistible desire to consume sweet or starchy foods. Eating such things triggers an improvement in mood as carbohydrates are an important source of the amino acid tryptophan which is an essential building block for serotonin. Support for the existence of carbohydrate craving syndrome comes from a recent experimental trial by Corsica & Spring(2008). They have studied the link carbs and mood enhancement. They studied 21 overweight women who described themselves as carbohydrate cravers. They were called in on six different days during 2 weeks after consuming a standardized meal. They introduced dysphasia by asking them to recall sad memories and to listen to sad music, assessing their mood to ensure the dysphoric mood has been achieved. The had a choice between a carbohydrate rich drink and a protein rich drink. They found that the carbohydrate drink has greater anti-depressive effect over protein drink.those who crave carbs self medicate their low mood by eating foods low in carbs. This experiment was a double blind trial were the research assistant and the participants had no idea the contents of the drink. This reduces observer bias and demand characteristics which increases the validity of the results. Also,
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