The relationship of cognitive restraint to the spontaneous food and fluid intake of free-living humans.
How the desire to restrain intake, cognitive restraint, may influence the amount or pattern of food and fluid intake was investigated by studying the spontaneous intake of free-living humans. The Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire and the Restraint Scale were completed by 358 adults who also were paid to maintain 7-day diaries of their intake. For both males and females, higher cognitive restraint ws associated with lower and less variable overall intake, especially of fat and carbohydrate. This resulted from the ingestion of smaller and less variable meals that contained less fat. In addition, high restraint was associated with smaller deprivation ratios, and lower estimated before and after meal stomach contents. Although females were higher in restraint than males, comparable levels of restraint had equivalent effects upon intake. The results suggest that restrained subjects simply eat less because they require less with cognitive restraint as a secondary consequence.
de Castro
J M
JM
Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta 30303, USA.
D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology; D001835:Body Weight / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004326:Drinking / Q000502:physiology*; D004435:Eating / Q000502:physiology*; D002149:Energy Intake / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012727:Sex Characteristics