title: Food selection changes under stress.
abstract: Two studies investigate the effect of stress on food choice. Experiment 1 demonstrates experimentally that stress causes changes in food choice away from healthy low fat foods (grapes) to less healthy high fat foods (M&Ms), confirming previous survey research. Experiment 2, a survey study, finds that more females than males report increasing food consumption when stressed. A much larger percentage of those who report increasing their food consumption when stressed (71%) are restrained eaters (i.e., dieters) than are people who undereat or who do not change the amount they eat when stressed (35%). The foods that they report overeating when stressed are foods they normally avoid for weight-loss or health reasons (i.e., highly caloric high fat snack foods). They report eating these foods to feel better. Both studies show that stress not only increases consumption in certain individuals but also shifts their food choice from lower fat to higher fat foods.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ 07043, USA. zellnerd@mail.montclair.edu
authors.forename: Debra A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Zellner
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Loaiza
authors.forename: Zuleyma
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.forename: Jaclyn
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pita
authors.forename: Janira
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Morales
authors.forename: Deanna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pecora
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wolf
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002755:Choice Behavior; D004041:Dietary Fats; D004435:Eating / Q000523:psychology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012016:Reference Values; D012737:Sex Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D013649:Taste / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D004041:Dietary Fats