Binge eating linked to impulsivity and feeling upset
Binge eating - the uncontrollable consumption of a large amount of food in a short period of time - doesn't just happen because someone's had a rotten day – it is tied to how impulsive you are, say researchers writing in the International Journal of Eating Disorders.
Led by Sarah Racine from Ohio University, the team studies more than 600 female twins – finding that those with eating problems generally had higher levels of 'negative urgency,' or a tendency to act impulsively when experiencing negative emotions, than those who did not have pathological eating.
“It's human nature to want to turn to something for comfort after a bad day, but what our research found is that the tendency to act rashly when faced with negative emotions is a personality trait that can lead to binge eating,” said Professor Kelly Klump from Michigan State University – senior author of the research.
What's more, it's not just those with binge eating who act impulsively when upset, said the team.
“Both overeating and feeling out of control when eating small or normal amounts of food were related to rash action when experiencing negative emotions,” explained Racine.
Research details
Klump and her team interviewed 612 female twins, of which 14% had ‘objective binge episodes’ (OBEs), or related loss of control (LOC) eating and objective overeating (OO).
The team reported that women with OBEs, and women who only had LOC or OO had significantly higher levels of negative urgency than women without these episodes - suggesting that negative urgency is associated with both the loss of control and objective overeating components of binge eating.
Although negative urgency was high in those people who set out to overeat and those who lose control when eating, Racine believes there may be different factors at play for these two types of problem eating.
“It is possible that relationships between binge eating and negative urgency reflect impairments in behavioural control over eating when upset,” she said. “Overeating may instead represent increased sensitivity to rewarding effects of food in the context of negative emotions.”
Source: International Journal of Eating Disorders
Published online ahead of print, doi: 10.1002/eat.22412
“Examining associations between negative urgency and key components of objective binge episodes”
Authors: Sarah E. Racine, et al
