Automatic and Controlled Processing: Implications for Eating Behavior

Fürtjes, Sophia; King, Joseph A.; Goeke, Caspar; Seidel, Maria; Goschke, Thomas; Horstmann, Annette; Ehrlich, Stefan

doi:10.3390/nu12041097

Cited by 23 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Individuals may not be able to understand and apply the information to their particular situation (Blumenthal and Volpp, 2010). Furthermore, food choice decisions are often made under time pressure, with little conscious effort (Fürtjes et al, 2020, Veling et al, 2017, and in food environments that contain many signals that encourage unhealthy behaviour (Hoek and Jones, 2011). As a result, informing schemes may have narrow scope in which to bring about change.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Creating supportive eating places: a systematic review of food service initiatives

Carins

Pang

Willmott

et al. 2021

Health Promotion International

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Summary Obesity and diet-related health problems are complex, multi-factorial issues. Individual food choices are shaped by the wider context, and food environment level change is needed to support individual behaviour change. The food service sector can play an integral role, changing aspects of the food environment and contributing to improved consumer health. This systematic review aimed to analyse food service schemes that aimed to improve consumer health. Ten electronic databases were systematically searched to identify articles, supplemented with checking of reference lists from similar reviews and forward and backward searches to identify articles describing food service sector schemes. Sixteen schemes were identified, documented in 36 articles/reports. The schemes aimed to improve consumer health through one of three approaches—informing, enabling or engineering. In this order, these approaches involved increasing levels of effort from food services, corresponding with decreasing levels of effort for consumers. Half the schemes were informing, relying on an informed consumer to make a healthy choice. Most informing schemes had been evaluated to determine their impact on consumer choice and/or health, the evidence showed these schemes were generally ineffective. The effect of the enabling or engineering schemes on consumer choice and health had not been measured. Instead, evaluations focussed on process or business engagement rather than behavioural change assessments. This review indicates the food sector has the potential to contribute to consumer health through enabling and engineering; however, detailed outcome assessments are needed to draw definitive conclusions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Creating supportive eating places: a systematic review of food service initiatives

Carins

Pang

Willmott

et al. 2021

Health Promotion International

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“…More research is needed along this line, as if proved, the HHO could have a transformative impact on public health shifting the traditional framework in the cognitive-behavioral treatment of obesity towards habits as key a factor in weight loss programs and obesity prevention campaigns, which could be more effective than promoting self-control. 96…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is the habit system altered in individuals with obesity? A systematic review

Ciria¹,

Watson²,

Vadillo³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Habit-like eating behavior is repeatedly pointed to as a key cognitive mechanism contributing to the maintenance of overweight and obesity. Here, we conducted a systematic review of the literature to assess the existent behavioural evidence for the Habit Hypothesis for Overeating (HHO) which states that overweight and obesity are the consequence of an imbalance between the habit and goal-directed reward learning systems, leading to overconsumption of food. We found a total of 16 studies implementing a variety of different experimental protocols (i.e., free operant paradigm, slips-of-action test, two-step task, Pavlovian-to-Instrumental (PIT) paradigm, probabilistic learning task) and manipulations that rely on radically different theoretical stances. Studies using satiety-based outcome devaluation procedures as well as probabilistic learning tasks seem to provide preliminary evidence for the HHO. However, findings from different outcome devaluation procedures, sequential decision-making tasks, and PIT paradigms fail to show increased habitual eating behavior propensity in obesity. Taken together, the results of these studies do not support the HHO conclusively. More research along these lines is needed, as if proved, HHO might have a transformative impact on public health, shifting the traditional framework in the treatment and prevention of overweight and obesity.

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“…Obesity is also associated with automatic and stronger approach tendencies toward unhealthy food stimuli compared to those of normal-weight people [ 20 , 21 ]. It seems that a poor ability to self-regulate eating behavior and habits and the automatic processes guiding unhealthy eating behavior may prevent people from resisting to rewarding food stimuli [ 22 , 23 ]. As such, food cues and the conditioned reactions of the body to these cues significantly contribute to eating behavior and weight gain [ 24 , 25 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As such, food cues and the conditioned reactions of the body to these cues significantly contribute to eating behavior and weight gain [ 24 , 25 ]. Creating cues that help avoid undesired but automatic food-related behavior, such as health warning messages, might trigger a healthy behavior and strengthen self-control [ 22 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Signs of Warning: Do Health Warning Messages on Sweets Affect the Neural Prefrontal Cortex Activity?

Mehlhose

2020

Nutrients

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In the global attempt to combat rising obesity rates, the introduction of health warning messages on food products is discussed as one possible approach. However, the perception of graphical health warning messages in the food context and the possible impact that they may have, in particular at the neuronal level, have hardly been studied. Therefore, the aim of this explorative study was to examine consumers’ reactions (measured as neuronal activity and subjective reporting) of two different types of graphical health warning messages on sweets compared to sweets without warning messages. One type used the red road traffic stop sign as graphical information (“Stop”), while the other one used shocking pictures (“Shock”), an approach similar to the images on cigarette packages. The neural response of 78 participants was examined with the neuroimaging technique functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Different hemodynamic responses in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), the frontopolar cortex (FOC), and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) were observed, regions which are associated with reward evaluation, social behavior consequences, and self-control. Further, the health warning messages were actively and emotionally remembered by the participants. These findings point to an interesting health information strategy, which should be explored and discussed further.

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Automatic and Controlled Processing: Implications for Eating Behavior

Cited by 23 publications

References 64 publications

Creating supportive eating places: a systematic review of food service initiatives

Creating supportive eating places: a systematic review of food service initiatives

Is the habit system altered in individuals with obesity? A systematic review

Signs of Warning: Do Health Warning Messages on Sweets Affect the Neural Prefrontal Cortex Activity?

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