Is all nonhomeostatic eating the same? Examining the latent structure of nonhomeostatic eating processes in women and men.

Abstract

Nonhomeostatic eating is a complex (presumably) multidimensional construct associated with negative health outcomes. However, little research has examined the latent structure of nonhomeostatic eating processes, interrelationships among nonhomeostatic eating constructs, and differential associations between nonhomeostatic eating constructs and external correlates. This study adopted a construct validation approach to investigate these research questions in a large sample of undergraduate women and men (N ϭ 998; 54.6% female). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted on items from 8 measures representing numerous nonhomeostatic eating process constructs (e.g., binge eating, loss of control [LOC] over eating, "food addiction"). The 7-factor retained solution included the following: (1) emotional eating, (2) external eating, (3) LOC over eating, (4) overeating, (5) distress over nonhomeostatic eating, (6) hedonic hunger, and (7) food addiction. LOC over eating was the nonhomeostatic eating factor most strongly related to other factors (M rs ϭ .71 and .65 in women and men, respectively). Factor score multiple regressions conducted separately by sex indicated that distress over nonhomeostatic eating was related to body mass index, depressive symptoms, and eating-related clinical impairment in both women and men. In women, food addiction demonstrated unique associations with depressive symptoms, emotion dysregulation, and clinical impairment, whereas overeating uniquely predicted these outcomes in men. This is the first comprehensive analysis of the latent structure of nonhomeostatic eating processes and associations with external correlates, and results suggest that LOC over eating, distress over nonhomeostatic eating, food addiction (in women), and overeating (in men) exhibited the strongest relations with psychosocial impairment. Public Significance StatementThis study found evidence for seven distinct forms of nonhomeostatic eating in young adult women and men. The forms of nonhomeostatic eating that were most strongly associated with negative psychological adjustment were losing control over eating, feelings of guilt and distress over eating behavior, the experience of being "addicted" to food (for women), and the behavior of eating beyond physiological needs (for men).

Difficulties in Emotion Regulation, Alexithymia, and Social Phobia Are Associated With Disordered Eating in Male and Female Undergraduate Athletes

“…Further, these results suggest that emotion recognition of others -assessed via the RMET -also corresponds to emotion dysregulation and binge eating. Taken together, the present results reflect previous findings suggesting that men, more so than women, use binge eating as a maladaptive coping mechanism for emotional distress (Han and Pistole, 2014;Kukk and Akkermann, 2017;Racine et al, 2019).…”

“…Female athletes were also partially defined by higher scores on the TAS-DDF, which, together with greater DERS and EDI-B, reflects previous work that found emotion dysregulation and alexithymia contribute to binge eating risk for female athletes (Wollenberg et al, 2015;Shriver et al, 2016). It may be that female athletes engage in binge eating as a means of emotion regulation, similar to men in the general population (Han and Pistole, 2014;Kukk and Akkermann, 2017;Racine et al, 2019). Female athletes also report higher perceived stress than male athletes and may binge eat as a coping mechanism (Williams, 2016).…”

Separating the Signal from the Noise: How Psychiatric Diagnoses Can Help Discern Food Addiction from Dietary Restraint

“…Multiple lines of evidence suggest that individuals with FA have more depressive symptoms than controls [ 60 , 105 , 130 , 150 , 151 , 152 ]. A recent review of studies using YFAS identified depressive symptoms as a clinically relevant correlate [ 49 ].…”

Is food addiction a predictor of treatment outcome among patients with eating disorder?

“…The concept of FA posits that individuals experience addictive‐like symptoms related to the consumption of high‐calorie/palatable foods (Bonder, Davis, Kuk, & Loxton, ; Davis, ; Meule, von Rezori, & Blechert, ; such as preoccupation with obtaining a desired food, excessive consumption of unhealthy foods despite adverse health consequences, craving, impaired control, tolerance, withdrawal, and distress/dysfunction; Fletcher & Kenny, ; Gordon, Ariel‐Donges, Bauman, & Merlo, ), and with biological–hormonal maintaining factors (Novelle & Diéguez, ; Peters et al, 2018). It has been related to other addictive disorders due to the parallels in the neurochemistry (Gearhardt 2016; Jiménez‐Murcia et al, ; Tomasi et al, ), specifically in terms of participation of the dopaminergic reward system and the activation of positive reinforcement mechanisms (Carter & Davis, ; Racine, Hagan, & Schell, ; Volkow, Wang, Fowler, Tomasi, & Baler, ). This evidence suggests that FA could be evaluated by considering the behavioural and symptomatology patterns observed in other addictions, as captured in the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS; Gearhardt, Corbin, & Brownell, ).…”