Mood, Emotions and Food Choice

PCOS 2009 Dr Leigh Gibson Roehampton University

Dietary Management in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome April 2009

Mood, Emotions and Food Choice Dr Leigh Gibson Reader in Biopsychology Clinical and Health Psychology Research Centre School of Human and Life Sciences Whitelands College Roehampton University London http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/researchcentres/chp/index.html

1


Why look at mood and food choice?

“Let me have men about me that are fat; Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights: Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.” Caesar in W. Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”, Act 1, Scene (ii).

Chronic Stress .50

Poor diet Low activity Psych Distress

CHD .30

.33

Vitaliano et al. (2002) (prospective data from male AD carers)

.39

Metabolic Syndrome

2


Child Eating Behaviour Q scales predict adiposity over a wide range in 10,359 8-11-y-olds (Carnell & Wardle, 2008)

‘Satiety resp. + Slow eating’

‘Enjoyment of Food’

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Food choice and current internal state

• Anticipation of shifting internal state* from current (need) to required (ideal/sated) state • Adaptive eating, or successful ‘homeostasis’, depends on accurate learning and reliable stimuli • Maladaptive eating – ‘wrong’ choices can be rewarding too…

*nutritional, cognitive, emotional

4


Tasting water

5


Tasting sucrose solution

6


Tasting lemon juice

7


Opioids mediate both hedonic and motivational aspects of appetite

Tongue protrusion

gape

Berridge (2009) 8


Eating: pleasure from sensation and energy.…satisfying hunger

• Sweet and fatty energy-rich foods are highly rewarding… • …and make us feel better…

+

• …so that we really want (crave) them during hunger or stress. • Problem: - energy dense foods encourage overeating, thus obesity.

- Only some people are susceptible. 9


Craving for Chocolate

• Why is chocolate craved and habit-forming? • Is the craving just a strong appetite created by eating chocolate when hungry? • Can it be extinguished by eating chocolate only when full?

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Chocolate ‘craving’ depends on eating it when hungry: eating chocolate when full extinguishes craving

Craving for Chocolate

100

A

Gibson & Desmond (1999)

CRAVERS a

80

c

b

60 40 20 0 Pre

Test State:

Training State:

Post

Pre

Hungry

Hungry

Post

Full

Pre

Post

Hungry

(2 weeks)

Pre

Post

Full

Full 11


Food cravings decrease on a Very Low Calorie Diet* – and remain low on refeeding (Martin, C.K. et al., 2006, Obesity, 14, 115-121)

*800-1000 kcal/day - mainly liquid supplement 12


Does chocolate cause a ‘sugar rush’ leading to mood fluctuation?

“…shortly after eating it, you feel great, consumed by a surge of energy, followed by a low when the sugar rush runs out…” From Chocolate Week 2004 (UK) website

The measure for the change in blood glucose after eating a fixed load of carbohydrate is known as the ‘Glycaemic Index’...

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Chocolate is a low GI food! Don’t expect a “sugar rush” Glycaemic Index (vs. White Bread = 100) Data from Foster-Powell, Holt & Brand-Miller (2002) [Healthy subjects]

potato, baked potato, boiled cornflakes white bread Fanta drink carrot/parsnip banana Mars bar sucrose white rice Alpen muesli spaghetti chocolate, milk baked beans apple

158 113.5 112 100 97 97 94.5 89 88 87 77 72 61 57 56

0

50

100

150

200

14


Simpson et al. (2006) BJN

Blood glucose levels in women selfreporting hypoglycaemic symptoms vs. matched controls:

• Symptomatic levels are lower than asymptomatic or control levels, and occur before 3 hr after eating 2%