Eating Behavior Associated with Food Intake in European Adolescents Participating in the HELENA Study

Abstract

Adolescence is recognized as a time of rapid physiological and behavioral change. In this transition, eating behavior is still being formed and remains an integral part of a person’s lifestyle throughout his or her life. This study aims to assess eating behavior and associations with food intake in European adolescents. We included 2194 adolescents (45.9% boys), aged 12.5 to 17.5 years, from the cross-sectional HELENA study, with two completed 24 h recalls and complete questionnaire data on their eating behavior (Eating Behavior and Weight Problems Inventory for Children- EWI-C). Three subscales of the EWI were evaluated; they measured Strength and motivation to eat (EWI 1), Importance and impact of eating (EWI 2), and Eating as a means of coping with emotional stress (EWI 3). Since these subscales were specially focused on eating behavior, participants were classified as either Low (≤P75) or High (>P75) on each of the subscales. Our results showed a higher consumption of different types of food, in the EWI 1 scales, linked to the hunger and interest in eating, and we observed a relationship with the consumption of energy-dense products. This result was repeated in EWI 3, the subscale linked to emotional eating, where we also found higher consumption of energy-dense products. This study suggests that special features of eating behavior are associated with food intake in adolescents.

Understanding the Interplay of Dietary Intake and Eating Behavior in Type 2 Diabetes

“…There are scarce data in the literature on how eating behavior affects food intake in individuals with T2DM. Most studies that analyzed dietary intake in relation to at least one of the variables of eating behavior were conducted on children and adolescents [ 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 ]. Other studies have analyzed eating behavior in relation to food intake in bariatric patients [ 78 , 79 ], patients with metabolic syndrome [ 80 ], or the general population [ 65 ].…”

Exploring the association between adolescent‐perceived parental monitoring on dietary intake

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