Development and validation of a brief form of the Anticipated Effects of Food Scale.

Identifying malleable influences on eating behaviours will advance our ability to improve physical and mental health. Food-related emotional expectancies are the anticipated positive and negative emotions from eating different foods and are theorised to affect eating behaviour, and to be amenable to change. The Anticipated Effects of Food Scale (AEFS) assesses food-related emotional expectancies using 62 one-word items; however, a shorter questionnaire would be useful in large and clinical studies.

Consumer Awareness, Perceptions and Avoidance of Ultra-Processed Foods: A Study of UK Adults in 2024.

Background: Ultra-processed food (UPF) is currently not included in most countries' dietary guidance. However, there may be growing public interest and consumer avoidance of UPF due to media reporting of studies on the negative health outcomes associated with UPFs.

Methods: We surveyed 2386 UK adults (M age = 45 years, 50% female) during February-April 2024.

The burden of overweight/obesity and weight-related behaviors attributable to food addiction in emerging adults.

While food addiction has been positively associated with excess weight and disordered eating behaviors, this has not been examined in representative samples of emerging adults, who are at elevated risk for these outcomes. This study investigated relationships of food addiction with weight outcomes, weight perception, and weight-control behaviors in emerging adults and estimated the population attributable fraction to food addiction. Data from an observational cohort study were collected in seven annual waves from 2010 to 2016.

Associations of Appetitive Traits and Parental Feeding Style With Diet Quality During Early Childhood.

Background: Appetitive traits and parent feeding styles are associated with body mass index in children, yet their associations with child diet quality are unclear.

Objective: The objective was to examine relations of appetitive traits and parental feeding style with diet quality in 3.5-year-old children.

Relationships of pregnancy and postpartum diet quality with offspring birth weight and weight status through 12 months.

Objective: This study examined relationships of maternal pregnancy and postpartum diet quality with infant birth size and weight status indicators through 12 months and tested whether breastfeeding duration modifies these associations.

Methods: In the Pregnancy Eating Attributes Study (PEAS), dietary intake was assessed six times in 458 mothers who were followed from early pregnancy through 12 months postpartum (2014-2018). Logistic and linear mixed models estimated relationships of pregnancy and postpartum diet quality (Healthy Eating Index [HEI]) with offspring who were large-for-gestational-age (LGA) at birth, as well as BMI z score (BMIz) and weight-for-length z score (WFLz) at birth, 6 weeks, 6 months, and 12 months.

Developmental trajectory of appetitive traits and their bidirectional relations with body mass index from infancy to early childhood.

Appetitive traits, including food responsiveness, enjoyment of food, satiety responsiveness and slowness in eating, are associated with childhood body mass index. Change in appetitive traits from infancy to childhood and the direction of causality between appetitive traits and body mass index are unclear. The present study examined the developmental trajectory of appetitive traits and their bidirectional relations with body mass index, from infancy to early childhood.

A randomized experiment of the effects of food advertisements on food-related emotional expectancies in adults.

Food-related emotional expectancies influence food intake, yet little is known about their determinants. The present study objectives were to experimentally test how food advertisements affect food-related emotional expectancies in adults and whether effects differed by individual levels of "food addiction" symptoms. Participants ( = 718;  = 35.

Associations of parent feeding behaviors and early life food exposures with early childhood appetitive traits in an observational cohort study.

Purpose: Child appetitive traits, eating styles that reflect responsiveness to external influences and internal hunger and satiety signals, are associated with eating behaviors and susceptibility to excess weight gain. However, relatively little is known about early life influences on child appetitive traits. This study investigated relations of early life maternal feeding behaviors and food exposures with appetitive traits at age 3.

The Association of Perceived Vulnerability to Disease with Cognitive Restraint and Compensatory Behaviors.

Individual differences exist in perceived vulnerability to disease (PVD). PVD is associated with negative responses (e.g.

Greater Ultra-Processed Food Intake during Pregnancy and Postpartum Is Associated with Multiple Aspects of Lower Diet Quality.

Low diet quality during pregnancy and postpartum is associated with numerous adverse maternal and infant health outcomes. This study examined relations of ultra-processed food intake with diet quality during pregnancy and postpartum. Using data from 24-h recalls, ultra-processed food intake was operationalized as percent energy intake from NOVA-classified ultra-processed foods; diet quality was measured using Healthy Eating Index 2015 (HEI) total and component scores.

Prospective relations of maternal reward-related eating, pregnancy ultra-processed food intake and weight indicators, and feeding mode with infant appetitive traits.

Background: Infant appetitive traits including eating rate, satiety responsiveness, food responsiveness, and enjoyment of food predict weight gain in infancy and early childhood. Although studies show a strong genetic influence on infant appetitive traits, the association of parent and infant appetite is understudied. Furthermore, little research examines the influence of maternal pregnancy dietary intake, weight indicators, and feeding mode on infant appetite.

Co-occurrence of food addiction, obesity, problematic substance use, and parental history of problematic alcohol use.

Objective: The present study investigates the rates of co-occurrence among food addiction (FA), problematic substance use (alcohol, cannabis, cigarettes, nicotine vaping), parental history of problematic alcohol use, and obesity as an important step to understanding whether an addictive-like eating phenotype exists.

Method: A community sample of 357 U.S.

Associations of ultra-processed food intake with maternal weight change and cardiometabolic health and infant growth.

Background: Excessive intake of ultra-processed foods, formulated from substances extracted from foods or derived from food constituents, may be a modifiable behavioral risk factor for adverse maternal and infant health outcomes. Prior work has predominately examined health correlates of maternal ultra-processed food intake in populations with substantially lower ultra-processed food intake compared to the US population. This longitudinal study investigated relations of ultra-processed food intake with maternal weight change and cardiometabolic health and infant growth in a US cohort.

Extending Expectancy Theory to Food Intake: Effect of a Simulated Fast-Food Restaurant on Highly and Minimally Processed Food Expectancies.

Unhealthy diets are widespread and linked to a number of detrimental clinical outcomes. The current preregistered experiment extended Expectancy Theory into the study of food intake; specifically, we tested whether a fast-food restaurant affects food expectancies, or the emotions one expects to feel while eating highly (e.g.

Highly processed food intake and immediate and future emotions in everyday life.

Increased consumption of highly processed foods may result in lower diet quality, and low diet quality is associated with elevated risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. One mechanism driving highly processed food intake is the expectation that eating these foods will improve emotional experiences, particularly in individuals with elevated "highly processed food addiction" symptoms. However, experimental findings about the emotional experiences following highly processed food intake are mixed.

A Pavlovian Intervention to Condition Comforting Effects of Fruits.

Objective: Perceived stress, lower fruit intake, and comfort eating are all risk factors for chronic disease. The present pilot study aimed to simultaneously mitigate all three risk factors by applying Pavlovian conditioning to change the nature of comfort eating. Specifically, stressed participants underwent a Pavlovian conditioning intervention designed to elicit comforting effects of fruit intake and thereby reduce negative mood while promoting fruit intake.

Health-promoting behaviors in the United States during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The potential negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on health-compromising behaviors including overeating, processed food intake, and alcohol use have been well documented. However, it is possible the COVID-19 pandemic has had positive effects on some health-promoting behaviors like cooking and fruit and vegetable intake. The current study was a preregistered secondary data analysis using data from a U.

A randomized study of effects of obesity framing on weight stigma.

Objective: Growing evidence suggests highly processed foods may trigger an addictive-like process, which is associated with obesity. Other research suggests an addictive-like process occurs in response to eating itself, rather than specific foods. Addiction-based obesity explanations raise concerns about double stigmatization of people with obesity and addiction.

COVID-19 stress and eating and drinking behaviors in the United States during the early stages of the pandemic.

The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has created widespread stress. Since many people cope with stress by eating, the current study investigated whether eating behaviors shifted among U.S.

A narrative review of highly processed food addiction across the lifespan.

Evidence is growing that highly processed (HP) foods (i.e., foods high in refined carbohydrates and fat) are highly effective in activating reward systems and may even be capable of triggering addictive processes.

Prospective associations between parental substance use and youth highly processed food intake in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study.

Background: Given growing evidence of overlap in characteristics of addictive substances and highly processed foods (e.g., ice cream), transdiagnostic approaches may be appropriate.

Development and preliminary validation of the Anticipated Effects of Food Scale.

Expectancy theory has been widely applied in substance use research but has received less attention in eating behavior research. Measuring food expectancies, or the anticipated outcomes of eating specific foods, holds theoretical and practical promise for investigations into nonhomeostatic eating behavior. The current study developed and assessed the psychometric properties of a novel measure of positively and negatively valenced highly (e.

Experimental and observational studies on alcohol use and dietary intake: a systematic review.

The scientific literature on links among alcohol use, total energy intake, cardiometabolic disease and obesity is conflicting. To clarify the link between alcohol use and cardiometabolic health, this systematic review (PROSPERO CRD42016039308A) uses PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines to synthesize how alcohol use affects dietary intake (carbohydrate, fat and protein intake) in humans. A search of Google Scholar, PsycINFO and PubMed from June 2016-March 2019 yielded 30 qualified studies.

Parental substance use and child reward-driven eating behaviors.

Family history of substance use is a well-established risk factor for greater substance use in adolescence and adulthood. The biological vulnerability hypothesis proposes that family history of substance use might also confer risk for obesogenic eating behavior because of similar rewarding characteristics between substances and certain foods (e.g.

Acute Effect of Eating Sweets on Alcohol Cravings in a Sample with At-Risk Drinking.

Background: Alcohol craving, or the desire to drink alcohol, has been identified as a key experience preceding alcohol use. Alcoholics Anonymous has long claimed that individuals can allay alcohol cravings by eating sweets. Empirical tests of this strategy are limited to a few preclinical studies in rats, and there is no existing experiment testing the acute effect of eating sweets on alcohol cravings in humans.