The eating behavior of obese and nonobese women

Sixty-one obese, normal weight and thin women were observed for 30 minutes as they consumed a free-choice lunch in a quasi-naturalistic setting. Their behavior was unobtrusively quantified in terms of microbehavior (mouthfulls, chews, drinks and pauses) and of the macrobehavior (type and amount of food consumed and total active eating or drinking time). Information on subject and environmental variables are also reported. Observed behavior was analyzed as comparative group totals and as patterns of behavior over time. Comparison of group totals showed that: (a) there were no differences in types of food or number of calories consumed between the three groups, (b) no differences were found between the eating behavior of the normal weight and the obese and (c) the obese women spent less time actively eating, less time chewing and more time drinking than did the thinnest group. Pattern analysis revealed a decrease in all responses over time but showed no significant pattern difference between groups.     

Effect of calories on appetite for palatable food in obese and nonobese humans.

Palatable food stimuli were presented to 11 obese and 11 nonobese male human subjects (in three experiments) 1 hr after ingestion of 900-calorie liquid lunches and (on separate days) indentically tasting 450-calorie liquid lunches of equal volume. Salivary responses to the presentation of the stimuli (i.e., appetite) by the nonobese were inhibited by the high-calorie meal, but those by the obses were less inhibited. Hunger ratings were unaffected by calories in either group. Food stimuli were rated as more appetizing by the nonobese after high-calorie meals, but not so by the obese. Parallels with animal findings suggest that salivary responses reflect lateral hypothalamic activity.     

Eating patterns and breakfast consumption in obese patients with binge eating disorder

This study examined eating patterns and breakfast consumption, and their relationships to weight and binge eating, in obese individuals with binge eating disorder (BED). One-hundred seventy-three consecutively evaluated men (n=46) and women (n=127) with BED were administered semi-structured interviews and self-report measures to assess the frequency of meals and snacks eaten, as well as binge eating and eating disorder features. Overall, those who consumed more frequent meals, particularly breakfast, and snacks, weighed less. Breakfast, which was eaten on a daily basis by less than half of participants (n=74; 43%), was the least frequently eaten meal of the day. Participants (n=56; 32%) who ate three meals per day weighed significantly less, and had significantly fewer binges, than participants (n=117; 68%) who did not regularly eat three meals per day. Thus, eating more frequently, having breakfast and consuming three meals every day, have potentially important clinical applications for the treatment of BED given that the effectiveness of specific interventions within treatments for BED are unknown, and that weight loss outcome for BED has been poor.     

Comparison of self-concept of nonobese and obese university junior female nursing students

Obesity appears to be one of today's most common health problems. Its incidence has doubled in the past 75 years (Waxler & Leef, 1969), and it is estimated that 45 million Americans are obese (body weight 15% over ideal weight). There also seems to be preoccupation with dieting, as evidenced by the proliferation of weight-control devices and schemes. It has been noted that depression, distorted body image, problems in peer and family relations, and poor school performance are evident among the obese (Bowers, Faulkner, & Michel, 1979). The literature is replete with evidence of body image distortion in obesity. Among the factors contributing to this distortion are age of onset, presence of emotional disturbance, and negative evaluation of the obese person by significant others (Wineman, 1980). Since body image is an important concept, perhaps movement can be made to other areas of self-concept, such as family, social, identity, and personal conceptions of selfhood. The purpose of this study is to provide information about the total self-concept of obese students as compared to nonobese students in a junior nursing class. A determination is made of the relationships between self-concept and variables of obesity, age of onset, and social class. Implications for nursing care are described.     

Loss of control over eating in obese youngsters

OBJECTIVE: To investigate loss of control over eating in a sample of obese youngsters seeking treatment. METHOD: Obese youngsters (aged 10-16) were categorized into those having experienced loss of control (LC) and those who had not (NoLC) using the child version of the Eating Disorder Examination. Furthermore, the LC group was subdivided into an objective binge eating (OBE) and a subjective binge eating (SBE) group. The groups were compared on psychological measures. RESULTS: LC subjects (17.9%) showed more concern about eating, weight and shape. They also reported more emotional and external eating behaviors and more depression. Youngsters who report SBE show resemblances to both NoLC and OBE subjects. DISCUSSION: LC subjects are characterized by more eating-related psychopathology and higher levels of depression. Especially obese youngsters with OBE turned out to be a pathological group.     

Effects of cue prominence and palatability on the drinking behavior of obese and normal humans.

This study examines the effects of cue salience and palatability (water temperature) on the water drinking of obese and normal subjects. Obese subjects drink more than do normal subjects when the water cue is prominent but do not do so when this cue is remote. Palatability does not differentially affect the drinking behavior of obese and normal subjects. These results support the extension to nonfood stimuli of the hypothesis of the hyperreactivity of the obese to prominent cues.     

Response patterns and cardiovascular effects during response sequence acquisition by humans.

The effects of temporal delays imposed between successive responses and of vitamin C administration were examined on the acquisition of response sequences and on cardiovascular reactivity during sequence acquisition. Thirteen adult subjects (6 female, 7 male), in good health, gave written consent prior to participating in 12 weekly 45-min sessions. Points, exchanged for money after each session, were presented when subjects completed 15-response sequences on a touch-sensitive three-response keypad. A position counter increased from 0 to 14 as subjects emitted correct responses in the sequence. Four novel 15-response sequences were presented each session. No delays were imposed between successive responses during the acquisition of one sequence; delays were imposed immediately following each response during the acquisition of a second sequence, thereby delaying response feedback; delays were imposed following feedback during acquisition of a third sequence, resulting in the removal of the stimulus correlated with sequence position; and, as a control condition, delays were imposed following feedback, but stimuli correlated with sequence position were reinstated prior to the next response during acquisition of a fourth sequence. Subjects were exposed to one of two delay durations (0.2 and 0.5 or 0.5 and 1.0 s) each session, and delay durations alternated every session. During Weeks 5 to 8, subjects received 3 grams of vitamin C per day, whereas during Weeks 1 to 4 and 9 to 12, subjects received placebo under single-blind conditions. All subjects acquired the sequences, as evidenced by decreasing percentages of incorrect responses across trials. When temporal delays were imposed between successive responses during sequence acquisition, acquisition efficiency was enhanced. Examination of response latencies suggested that the status of preceding responses (i.e., correct or incorrect) rather than the status of the position counter influenced subsequent responding. Cardiovascular effects were inversely related to the length of the temporal delay. Neither cardiovascular reactivity or sequence acquisition were related to vitamin C administration.     

The acquisition of taste aversions in humans with eating and drinking disorders

A written questionnaire or interview concerned with acquisition of illness-induced (taste) aversions to foods and drinks was given to three groups of people with eating and drinking disorders. These groups consisted of 101 male and 1 female hospitalized alcoholics, 8 male and 8 female college-student heavy consumers of alcohol and 18 females with anorexia nervosa and/or bulimia. In most respects taste-aversion acquisition in these three groups was similar to taste-aversion acquisition in a general college-student population previously studied by Logue, Ophir and Strauss (1981), and to taste-aversion acquisition in other species. In all three groups the aversions were more likely to be reported as having been formed through forward rather than simultaneous or backward conditioning, and long-delay learning was frequent. The aversions usually formed to the tastes rather than to the appearance or other aspects of the foods and drinks. Extinction appeared more effective in decreasing the aversions than did forgetting. While the illness responsible for the aversions forming was usually attributed to the subsequently aversive food or drink, in at least one third of the cases subjects reported that something else might have caused their illness. Aversions were more likely to have formed to relatively less familiar and less preferred foods and drinks. However, the hospitalized alcoholics reported fewer aversions, less generalization of aversions, and stronger nausea as the cause of the aversions than did Logue et al.'s (1981) subjects. About 15% of these subjects reported taste aversions to alcoholic beverages. The college-student heavy consumers of alcohol reported no generalization of their taste aversions, but in other respects were similar to Logue et al.'s subjects. Thirty-one percent of these subjects reported taste aversions to alcoholic beverages. The anorexic and bulimic subjects were also similar to Logue et al.'s subjects with the exception that they, like the hospitalized alcoholics, reported stronger nausea as the cause of the aversions. These data may help to understand and treat people with eating and drinking disorders     

Palatability of food as a factor influencing obese and normal-weight children''s eating habits

The type and amount of food leftover from school lunches by normal-weight and obese elementary school children was examined for its similarity to the pattern reported by Krassner et al. (1979) in a study of normal-weight and obese college students. In this study 102 observations of children between the ages of 9–11, were taken over eight lunch periods in their school cafeteria. Overall, the normal-weight children left only slightly more food uneaten than did the obese children. However, when food palatability was examined, it was found that normal-weight children left over twice as much palatable food as did obese children. Children did not differ on the amount of unpalatable food left uneaten.

These results suggest that Krassner et al.'s observation that obese adults leave less food on their plates may be extended to children and, further, that like obese adults, obese children may be more influenced by the palatability of food than their normal-weight peers.     

Eating styles in the morbidly obese: Restraint eating,but not emotional and external eating,predicts dietary behaviour

Objectives : The research explored (1) the relationships between self-reported eating style (restraint, emotional and external eating) and dietary intake and (2) emotional eater status as a moderator of food intake when emotional, in a morbidly obese population.

Design : A sample of 57 obese participants (BMI: M?=?51.84, SD?=?8.66) completed a five-day food diary together with a reflective diary, which assessed eating style and positive and negative affect daily.

Main outcome measures : A dietician-scored food pyramid analysis of intake.

Results : Restraint eating was the only predictor (negative) of overall food intake and the variable most strongly associated with the consumption of top-shelf foods. Emotional and external eating were unrelated to food intake. Emotional eater status did not moderate food intake in response to positive and negative mood states.

Conclusion : The findings indicated largely analogous relationships between eating style and dietary intake in this obese sample compared with previous results from healthy populations. The lack of predictive validity for emotional eating scales (when emotional) raises questions over people’s ability to adequately assess their eating style and consequently, the overall validity of emotional eater scales.     

The effect of social cues on the eating behavior of obese and normal subjects1

Schachter's externality hypothesis suggests that overweight individuals are more likely to be induced to eat by salient external cues than normal weight individuals. While a range of studies have demonstrated the plausibility of this hypothesis in the case of sensory stimuli (e.g., taste cues), there is little evidence that the hypothesis applies to social stimuli. The current study examines this latter proposition by exposing male and female, overweight and normal weight subjects to a same-sex or opposite-sex peer model. Under the guise of engaging in a taste experiment, the subjects were either exposed to a model who tasted experiment, the subjects were either exposed to a model who tasted no crackers (no eat), one cracker (low eat), or twenty crackers (high eat). In addition, control model-absent conditions were also run for purposes of establishing baseline eating rates. If the externality hypotheses were to prevail in social domains, one would expect overweight subjects to be more prone to model the cracker-eating behavior of the peer than normal weight individuals. However, the findings indicate that all subject groups regardless of weight evidence a rather clear modeling effect and all subjects evidence social inhibition effects on their eating behavior as well. Several intriguing interactions among subject sex, model sex, subject weight, and social condition were also found. The discussion explores the relevance of an externality model of overweight eating in social domains, and focuses upon the interesting and somewhat distinct pattern of socially mediated eating exhibited by overweight females.     

Assessment of eating disorder psychopathology in obese children and adolescents: interview versus self-report questionnaire

The present study compared two methods for assessing binge eating and related eating disorder psychopathology in obese children and adolescents. A comparison was made between the child version of the Eating Disorder Examination (ChEDE) and the self-report version of the interview (ChEDE-Q). A total of 139 children and adolescents (aged 10-16 years) seeking inpatient treatment for obesity completed the ChEDE questionnaire and were administered the ChEDE interview afterwards. The ChEDE and ChEDE-Q were significantly correlated for the four subscales: restraint, eating concern, weight concern and shape concern. The ChEDE-Q generated consistently higher levels of eating disorder psychopathology. There was a significant discrepancy for the assessment of a more complex feature such as binge eating. Overall, the current study found lower levels of agreement between the EDE and EDE-Q than previously reported in adult samples. It appears that children and adolescents have difficulties in identifying binge-eating episodes when they receive no detailed instruction. It is concluded that a clinical interview is necessary to identify eating disorders in obese children and that a self-report questionnaire can only be used as a screening tool. Even then, thorough clarification of the definition of the eating disorder features is needed when using a self-report questionnaire.     

Discrimination of letters and random dot patterns by pigeons and humans

In a three-choice discrimination task, pigeons learned to distinguish each letter of the alphabet from all the other letters and each of 16 random dot patterns from all the others. Discrimination errors were used to generate a matrix of interletter and interpattern similarities. Human estimates of letter similarity were obtained from the literature, and human subjects rated the similarity of the dot patterns. Pigeon and human performances were described and compared through correlation, multidimensional scaling, and cluster analysis. Fits of the data by simple-feature and template models were computed and compared. The correlation between pigeon and human similarity matrices was .68 for letters and .72 for dot patterns. The other analyses revealed broadly similar patterns of results from the two species but suggested also that, relative to human data, the best fits to the pigeon data required fewer dimensions, fewer features, and fuzzier templates. There was some indication that pigeon discriminations depended on relatively simple features, and several of these were tentatively identified. The different methods employed might have influenced these apparent differences between pigeons and humans, but, overall, the results suggest considerable cross-task and cross species generality in the processing of these simple forms.