Piece of cake. Cognitive reappraisal of food craving

Abstract

A common emotion regulation strategy, cognitive reappraisal, involves altering the meaning of a situation so that the emotional response to the situation is changed. Most research on reappraisal has focused on down-regulation of negative emotion; few studies exist on reappraisal of positive affect, and even fewer have examined the cognitive reappraisal of craving for energy-dense (e.g., “junk”) foods. In the present study we examined this form of cognitive reappraisal using a new adaptation of a classic emotion regulation task. Subjects chose idiosyncratic categories of craved (and not craved) energy-dense foods as stimuli, and were instructed either to look at the stimulus or to reappraise it in a way that reduced desire to eat the depicted food using a strategy that could be used in the real world. A repeated-measures ANOVA and follow-up tests revealed that reappraisal significantly reduced self-reported desirability of both Craved and Not Craved foods, but for a greater degree in Craved foods. In addition, the degree to which subjects decreased their desire to consume Craved foods positively correlated with the cognitive restraint subscale of the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire, a measure of self-control of eating in everyday life.

Age-related changes in reappraisal of appetitive cravings during adolescence

“…The sample was distributed across the age range; in one-year increments, Ns ranged from 3 to 6 ( M = 4.62, SD = .77). There was no overlap between this sample and those from previous studies using this task (Giuliani et al, 2013; Giuliani et al, 2014). Potential participants were excluded if they were left-handed, under 10 or over 23 years of age, non-native English speakers, had a current or past diagnosis of neurological or psychological disorder, had a history of head trauma, were pregnant, currently used psychoactive medication, or had any non-MRI compatible conditions (e.g., metal in body).…”

“…Details of the task are outlined in our previous work (Giuliani et al, 2013) and show in Figure 1. Briefly, images of two types of palatable foods were included as stimuli: low energy density foods (“Neutral”), and energy-dense (ED) foods of the participants’ choosing.…”

“…Reappraisal can be used to significantly reduce cravings for personally-craved unhealthy foods by, for example, focusing on the negative consequences of indulging in that food (Giuliani, Calcott, & Berkman, 2013). In adults, reappraisal of the craving for food stimuli recruits a network of brain regions quite similar to those recruited during the reappraisal of other affective states, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC; Buhle et al, 2013; Giuliani, Mann, Tomiyama, & Berkman, 2014; Hollmann et al, 2011).…”

“…In particular, reappraisal is an effective way of reducing cravings such as those elicited by cigarettes and junk food (Giuliani et al, 2013; Kober, Kross, et al, 2010). Although much of the work on reward and appetitive motivation in adolescence has focused on secondary rewards like money, some studies have begun to investigate how primary, non-monetary rewards like food are processed in the adolescent brain (e.g., Holsen et al, 2005; Luking, Luby, & Barch, 2014; Silvers et al, 2014).…”

The Elaborated Intrusion Theory of desire: A 10-year retrospective and implications for addiction treatments

“…These participants had less intense craving for cigarettes and lower dysphoria over the remainder of the experimental session than did those who were instructed to suppress or nonjudgementally accept thoughts about smoking. Giuliani, Calcott and Berkman (2013) trained participants to cognitively reappraise tempting foods negatively, by imagining themselves as very full, focusing on the negative consequences of eating, remind yourself that you can save that food for later, or imagining that something bad had happened to the food (e.g., being sneezed on). Cognitive reappraisal resulted in less reported desirability of a high-energy food than if the person focused on it, especially if it was one they craved.…”