FOOD FOR THOUGHT - COGNITIVE REGULATION OF FOOD-INTAKE

Objectives. Two studies examined the cognitive regulation of restraine d eaters' eating behaviour. It was hypothesized thar restrained dieter s should have more restraint-related cognitions in the presence of foo d stimuli than unrestrained eaters, whereas restrained non-dieters sho uld occupy an intermediate position. The correlation between cognition and consumption should be zero for unrestrained eaters and negative f or restrained eaters. Design. participants currently dieting or not di eting and of high or low restraint status (median split) were presente d in Study 1 with high and low calorie food words and asked to list th eir thoughts. In Study 2, participants listed thoughts following a tas te test. In both studies diet and restraint status were related to res traint relevant thoughts. In Study 2 thoughts were also related to act ual consumption. Methods. Participants were female students; restraint status was measured with the Restraint Scale; current diet status was assessed with one question. Fifty-two unrestrained eaters, 38 restrai ned non-dieters and 18 restrained dieters participated in Study 1; 33 unrestrained eaters, 19 restrained non-dieters and 11 restrained diete rs participated in Study 2. Results. Food stimuli elicited more eating control, weight-and shape-related thoughts in restrained dieters than in unrestrained eaters, with the restrained non-dieters occupying an intermediate position. Consistent with predictions, the cognition-cons umption correlation was zero for unrestrained eaters and negative (tre nd) for restrained dieters. Contrary to prediction, this correlation w as positive for restrained non-dieters. Conclusions. Results show that cognitions play an important role in the regulation of the eating beh aviour of restrained individuals. They further suggest that the cognit ive regulation of food intake in restrained eaters may be based on dif ferent mechanisms in dieters as compared to non-dieters.