Breaking the Link Between Negative Emotion and Unhealthy Eating: the Role of Emotion Regulation.

ABSTRACT: Stressful experiences frequently lead to increased consumption of unhealthy foods, high in sugar and fat yet low in nutrients. Can emotion regulation help break this link? In a laboratory experiment (N = 200), participants were encouraged to ruminate on a current, distressing personal problem, followed by instruction to use a specific emotion regulation strategy for managing feelings around that problem (challenge appraisal, relaxation/distraction, imagined social support, no-instruction control). Participants then spent 15 min on an anagram task in which 80% of items were unsolvable-a frustrating situation offering a second, implicit opportunity to use the regulation strategy. During the anagram task they had free access to a snack basket containing various options. Analyses reveal

SUBMITTER: Langley EB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10751272 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature