Food Addiction Is Associated with Irrational Beliefs via Trait Anxiety and Emotional Eating
Department of Psychology, Wagner College, 1 Campus Rd., Staten Island, NY 10301, USA
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Nutrients 2019, 11(8), 1711; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11081711
Received: 31 May 2019 / Revised: 20 July 2019 / Accepted: 22 July 2019 / Published: 25 July 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Food Addiction and Eating Addiction: Scientific Advances and their Clinical, Social and Policy Implications)
Irrational beliefs (IB) are believed, in cognitive behavioral therapies, to be a prime cause of psychopathologies including anxiety, depression, problem eating, and alcohol misuse. “Food addiction” (FA), which has been modeled on diagnostic criteria for substance use disorder, and emotional eating (EE) have both been implicated in the rise in overweight and obesity. Both FA and EE are associated with anxiety. Thus, in the present study, the hypothesis that IB is associated with FA and with EE was tested. Furthermore, possible mediation of these relationships by trait anxiety and depression (and EE for IB and FA) was examined. The responses of 239 adult participants to questionnaires measuring FA, IB, EE, depression, trait anxiety, and anthropometrics were recorded. The results revealed that IB was significantly positively correlated with FA and EE (and depression and trait anxiety). Furthermore, only EE mediated the effect of IB on FA and this was not moderated by BMI. Finally, trait anxiety (but not depression) mediated the effect of IB on EE. Exploratory analysis revealed a significant serial mediation such that IB predicted higher FA via elevated trait anxiety and emotional eating in that order. The results of this study suggest that IB may be a source of the anxiety that is associated with EE and FA and suggest that clinicians may find IB a target for treatment of those persons who report experiences of EE and FA. IB may play a role in food misuse that leads to elevated BMI.
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Keywords:
food addiction; irrational beliefs; emotional eating; anxiety; food misuse
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MDPI and ACS Style
Nolan, L.J.; Jenkins, S.M. Food Addiction Is Associated with Irrational Beliefs via Trait Anxiety and Emotional Eating. Nutrients 2019, 11, 1711. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11081711
AMA Style
Nolan LJ, Jenkins SM. Food Addiction Is Associated with Irrational Beliefs via Trait Anxiety and Emotional Eating. Nutrients. 2019; 11(8):1711. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11081711
Chicago/Turabian StyleNolan, Laurence J.; Jenkins, Steve M. 2019. "Food Addiction Is Associated with Irrational Beliefs via Trait Anxiety and Emotional Eating" Nutrients 11, no. 8: 1711. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11081711
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