Binge Eating in Diet Conscious Women Worsens a Bad Mood

A Penn State research finds women who are concerned about their diet and personality witnessed a worsening of moods after unhealthy eating, reports Medical Xpress.

The study included college-teens in the study to examine changes in mood to relate with real life situations. Researchers found that college teens who focus on maintaining good personality by following a healthy diet witnessed a mood worsening triggered by unhealthy eating behavior.

During the study, Kristin Heron, research associate at the Survey Research Center, noted that bad mood was worsened among the teens after unhealthy eating behaviors, says the report. Three other researchers accompanied Heron in her study namely, Joshua Smyth, professor of biobehavioral health, Stacey Scott, research associate in the Center for Healthy Aging, and Martin Sliwinski, professor of human development and family studies. They noted that binge eating, loss of control over eating and limiting food consumption are behaviors of eating disorders.

The study is the first to relate changes in mood with unhealthy eating, which according to Smyth, could lead to better treatments for women with eating disorders.

Researchers witnessed a slight change in participants' mood before unhealthy eating, which was worsened after eating unhealthy food. But they observed no change among participants with positive mood before or after unhealthy eating, according to the study.

The study included 131 college teens, who were concerned about their body shape and diet and were given handheld computers. These participants were involved in unhealthy eating habits but did not have any eating disorders. The computers were designed to prompt the participants to note their mood and eating behaviors at different times of the day.

Heron wanted more realistic results to the study, hence "studying women in their everyday lives to see whether mood changed before or after they engaged in unhealthy eating and weight control behaviors" was helpful.

"This study is unique because it evaluates moods and eating behaviors as they occur in people's daily lives, which can provide a more accurate picture of the relationship between emotions and eating," Smyth said. "The results from this study can help us to better understand the role mood may play in the development and maintenance of unhealthy eating, and weight-control behaviors, which could be useful for creating more effective treatment programs for people with eating and weight concerns."

The findings of the study were presented 15 March at the American Psychosomatic Society conference in Miami.