Uncontrolled eating: A unifying heritable trait linked with obesity, overeating, personality, and the brain

Abstract

Many eating-related psychological constructs have been proposed to explain obesity and over-eating. However, these constructs, including food addiction, disinhibition, hedonic hunger, emotional eating, binge eating, and the like all have similar definitions, emphasising loss of control over intake. As questionnaires measuring the constructs correlate strongly (r>0.5) with each other, we propose that these constructs should be reconsidered to be part of a single broad phenotype: uncontrolled eating. Such an approach enables reviewing and meta-analysing evidence obtained with each individual questionnaire. Here, we describe robust associations between uncontrolled eating, body mass index (BMI), food intake, personality traits, and brain systems. Reviewing cross-sectional and longitudinal data, we show that uncontrolled eating is phenotypically and genetically intertwined with BMI and food intake. We also review evidence on how three psychological constructs are linked with uncontrolled eating: lower cognitive control, higher negative affect and a curvilinear association with reward sensitivity. Uncontrolled eating mediates all three constructs’ associations with BMI and food intake. Finally, we review and meta-analyse brain systems possibly subserving uncontrolled eating: namely, (i) the dopamine mesolimbic circuit associated with reward sensitivity, (ii) frontal cognitive networks sustaining dietary self-control, and (iii) the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis, amygdala and hippocampus supporting stress reactivity. While there are limits to the explanatory and predictive power of the uncontrolled eating phenotype, we conclude that treating different eating-related constructs as a single concept, uncontrolled eating, enables drawing robust conclusions on the relationship between food intake and BMI, psychological variables, and brain structure and function.

Personality‐obesity associations are driven by narrow traits: A meta‐analysis

“…Therefore, the facet seems to be index uncontrolled eating, a behaviour already robustly associated with BMI. 54,55 There is some evidence that N5: Impulsiveness changes concurrently with BMI changes, 56 further highlighting a strong link between them. At the same time, studies using other measures of uncontrolled eating suggest that BMI and uncontrolled eating are related but ultimately dissociable processes (reviewed in Vainik et al 55 ).…”

Preference and detrimental effects of high fat, sugar, and salt diet in wild‐caught Drosophila simulans are reversed by flight exercise

“…Resting metabolic rate was determined by whole‐body respirometry over 2 hours in capillary tubes containing groups of five flies as described previously 27 . One‐way ANOVA showed significant effect of diet and exercise (F 397 = 2.004, p = 0.1185) (Figure 3A). There were also significant differences between CD and CDE, and CDE and WD according to the Mann‐Whitney test ( p < 0.05, n = 27).…”

“…The prevalence of obesity has expanded to pandemic proportions over the last few decades to all parts of the world and is strongly linked to the increased spread of Western lifestyle and Western diet (WD) 1 . The WD, notorious for its high fat and sugar content, predisposes individuals to obesity, metabolic syndrome, T2D (type 2 diabetes), cardiovascular diseases (CVD), inflammation, and behavioral disorders including bulimia and binge‐eating 1‐3 . High salt content is yet another hallmark of the WD, which contributes directly to high blood pressure, CVD, stroke, and renal diseases 4 .…”

Addiction in focus: molecular mechanisms, model systems, circuit maps, risk prediction and the quest for effective interventions

“…personality traits) and brain structure and function (encompassing the dopamine mesolimbic circuit, frontal cognitive networks and arousal/stress reactivity systems). They make call for unifying different eating-related constructs, such as food addiction, hedonic hunger, emotional eating and binge eatinginto a single conceptuncontrolled eating (Vainik et al, 2019). (4) Naish and colleagues provide a systematic literature review, finding partial evidence in support of a link between heightened response to experimentally induced stress and binge eating, calling for the identification of factors that modulate stress responses in individuals with this disorder (Naish et al, 2018).…”