Music listening as a potential aid in reducing emotional eating: An exploratory study

Abstract

Emotional Eating (EE) is understood as a maladaptive self-regulation strategy to satisfy emotional needs instead of hunger. Consequently, EE has been associated with negative health consequences.Enjoyment of food and music share similar neural activations in the brain and are both used by people for regulating affect. This suggests that music listening could potentially be a healthier alternative to EE. The present study was designed to investigate associations between EE, disordered mood, and music-related mood regulation.Five-hundred-and-seventy-one participants completed measures of EE, music listening strategies and disordered mood. Associations between seven different music listening strategies and EE were examined, and also whether these regulation strategies were associated with depression, anxiety, and stress. Finally, we explored associations between music listening and EE in people with low and high (non-clinical) levels of disordered mood (depression, anxiety, and stress).The findings of this research indicated that music listening for discharge (releasing anger or sadness through music that expresses these same emotions) and EE were positively associated with one another. In addition, EE and the music listening strategies of entertainment, diversion or mental work were associated in people with low levels of disordered mood. When disordered mood was high, EE was higher, but was not associated with music listening strategies. These associations point towards the possibility of some music listening strategies being useful as healthier alternatives for EE.

Eating in the lockdown during the Covid 19 pandemic; self-reported changes in eating behaviour, and associations with BMI, eating style, coping and health anxiety

“…Interestingly, maladaptive coping strategies, which included the subscales behavioural disengagement, self-blame and low acceptance, were associated with emotional and uncontrolled eating prior to lockdown. This suggests that these eating behaviours are part of a wider set of coping strategies, whereby, these types of eating behaviours may be part of a toolbox of maladaptive coping strategies, which worsen behaviours in time of distress ( Cheng et al, 2014 ; Van den Tol et al, 2018 ). Evers et al (2010) found that individuals who were asked to supress cognitions, which is viewed as a maladaptive strategy, ate more foods following an emotion induction than those using other strategies.…”

“…EE is much more common in individuals who have overweight or obesity ( Peneau, Menard, Mejean, Bellisle, & Hercberg, 2013 ), and worries about weight gain as a result of EE can lead to feelings of guilt ( Dubé, LeBel, & Lu, 2005 ; Macht & Dettmer, 2006 ) and thereby potentially even cancelling out the short-term reduction in negative effect. It has additionally been found that those people who report a larger variety of strategies for coping with aversities have better mental health in general and are also less likely to report to engage in EE ( Cheng, Lau, & Chan, 2014 ; Van den Tol, Coulthard, & Hanser, 2018 ) and found that eating is generally reported by people to be the least successful strategy for changing a bad mood ( Thayer, Newman, & McClain, 1994 ) out of a number of affect regulation behaviours.…”

Ironically enjoyed music: An investigation of the unique self-regulatory value of irony as part of the enjoyment of music

“…Perhaps the functionality of ironically enjoyed music draws more on it possessing aspects of genuine enjoyment (e.g., even if a dance song is seen as “cheesy” it is emotionally engaging and “novel”). Future research could further explore these findings with stronger causal inference, taking into account findings on the links between music selection strategies and the functions of music listening (Baltazar & Saarikallio, 2016, 2019; Van den Tol, Coulthard, & Hanser, 2016; Maher, van Tilburg, & van den Tol, 2013; Van den Tol & Edwards, 2014; Van den Tol, Edwards, & Heflick, 2016).…”

The role of coping in emotional eating and the use of music for discharge when feeling stressed

“…2 This data was part of a data set that has been used in previous publications (Van den Tol, Coulthard & Hanser, 2018).…”

“…Recent research (Van den Tol, Coulthard & Hanser, 2018) investigated the association between the use of different music listening strategies, EE and symptoms of stress (as well as anxiety and depression). It was found that the use of music for discharge was positively associated with EE, and both EE and the use of music for discharge were positively associated with stress.…”