Sensory processing styles and eating behaviors in healthy adults

Abstract

Introduction: Engagement in unhealthy eating behaviors is a significant risk factor for the development of obesity. These eating behaviors include uncontrolled and mindless eating in response to emotional and sensory cues. This study examines the relationship between sensory processing styles and eating behaviors in typical adults. Method: One hundred and fifty healthy individuals aged 18-60 completed the Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile, the Dutch Eating Behaviors Questionnaire, and a rating task of 40 healthy and unhealthy food images. Findings: Sensory processing styles characterized by passive self-regulation strategies (low registration and sensory sensitivity) were positively correlated with rates of emotional and external eating behaviors. Sensory seeking was positively correlated with ratings of desirability of healthy food images. Conclusion: Individuals whose sensory processing styles are characterized by passive self-regulation strategies are more likely to engage in unhealthy eating behaviors, including consuming food in relation to internal emotional and external sensory cues. Occupational therapists should consider the role of sensory factors when working with clients who engage in unhealthy food overconsumption.

The sex-specific association between autistic traits and eating behavior in childhood: An exploratory study in the general population

“…Emotional eating might also be driven by sensory processing problems, which affect around 90% of individuals with ASD (Leekam, Nieto, Libby, Wing, & Gould, 2007). Although studies evaluating this association in the ASD population are lacking, this hypothesis is substantiated by research in healthy adults indicating that sensory processing styles characterized by low registration and sensory sensitivity were associated with more emotional and external eating (Hebert, 2018).…”

Sensory processing in Sotos syndrome and Tatton-Brown–Rahman Syndrome.

“…Furthermore, the child may find it hard to engage in a task and complete it in a timely manner. Compared to other groups, patterns of sensory registration have been shown to be more common in autistic children than those with Williams Syndrome (Glod et al, 2020) and a tendency to engage in emotional eating and eating in relation to external environmental cues was associated with reduced sensory awareness in a neurotypical adult population (Hebert, 2018). Strategies to benefit children with reduced sensory awareness include providing children with more intense and varied sensory experiences in their everyday activities with the view to support and improve the child’s ability to detect and respond to changes in sensory input (Dunn, 2007).…”

Aplicaciones de perfiles sensoriales en adolescentes y adultos en el ámbito de salud: una revisión narrativa de la literatura

“…Seis artículos se refiere a personas adultas y personas mayores sanas (Metz et al, 2019;Engel-Yeger & Shochat, 2012;Engel-Yeger & Rosenblum, 2017;Hebert, 2016;Brown & Dunn, 2023;Bailliard et al, 2022). Dos artículos se refieren exclusivamente a ansiedad rasgos o trastornos de ansiedad (Clark et al, 2018;Engel-Yeger & Dunn, 2011a), dos artículos se refieren a diabetes (Engel-Yeger & Dunn, 2011b, dos artículos a accidentes cerebro vasculares (Chung & Song, 2016;Demopoulos et al, 2015), dos artículos se refiere a trastornos unipolares y bipolares (Serafini et al, 2016;Engel-Yeger et al, 2018a), otros dos artículos se refieren a hábitos alimenticios selectivos (Avery et al, 2018;Hebert, 2018), dos artículos se refieren a esclerosis múltiple con y sin daño cognitivo y ansiedad (Engel-Yeger et al, 2021;Stern et al, 2021). Dos artículos se refieren a estrés postraumático (Engel-Yeger et al, 2015;Lev-Wiesel, 2015).…”