Indulging in unhealthy eating behaviours can worsen the mood

Updated on: Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Researchers from the Penn State University found that college age women who were concerned about their eating behaviours reported that their moods worsened after bouts of disordered eating.

Researcher Kristin Heron said, "There was little in the way of mood changes right before the unhealthy eating behaviours. However, negative mood was significantly higher after these behaviours."

Researchers found that people who experience disordered eating patterns may exhibit behaviours such as binge eating, loss of control over eating and food intake restriction.

They detected little change in the participants moods prior to unhealthy eating. While negative mood was worse after disordered eating, a positive mood did not change either before or after any of the behaviours studied by the researchers.

The researchers gathered data from participants in real-life situations. The team gave handheld computers to 131 women who had high levels of unhealthy eating habits and concerns about their body shape and weight, but did not have eating disorders.

Several times during the day, the devices would prompt the participants to answer questions about their mood and eating behaviours.

"What we know about mood and eating behaviours comes primarily from studies with eating disorder patients or from laboratory studies," Heron said in a statement.

"We were interested in studying women in their everyday lives to see whether mood changed before or after they engaged in unhealthy eating and weight control behaviours," Heron added.

Indulging in unhealthy eating behaviours can worsen the mood

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