Running head: MOOD AFFECTS EATING HABITS

Mood Affects Eating Habits

Kyle Gering
RWS/1301
December 06, 2015
Ms. Salas

MOOD AFFECTS EATING HABITS

Mood Affects Eating Habits

There are different eating habits that everyone in the world has they are good, bad habits
some have good habits but bad bodies as in it does not matter what they eat but they are
overweight then there are the lucky few that have bad eating habits and dont gain a pound.
There are people out in the world that would say that only depression causes people to be
overweight and underweight but I can tell you that that is one cause of this problem. I will be
going over the other way that looks at bad eating habits in the right and most known way mood,
all the moods contribute to the greatest contributor to bad eating habits and I now have the proof.
First, the most people talk about is that depression is the main cause of overweightunderweight its not just like a rock on a mountain it is there but not the only thing. Depression is
caused by usually the loss of once home, state of living, or even loved ones and because of these
peoples senses go numb so they eat just to do something else which is a result to overweight. On
the other end of the coin this same situation for others cause them to stop eating altogether and
because of the lack of fuel for the body it starts to eat itself which in turn causes underweight.
The sad part is we cant stop depression but we can manage it with the help from outside just like
in the cartoon series Avatar the last air bender uncle Iroh says to prince Zuko that selfmotivation is good and help from outside is of great influence.
Next, there is the horror that is called binge eating which is the over consumption of food
for a brief period of time. The sad part of binge eating is that it is mostly caused and related to
depression people usually binge eat to feel better this is said by Bekker M in the journal called
Effects of negative mood induction and impulsivity on self-perceived emotional eating she
says that Binge eating is often considered to be an uncontrolled reaction to negative affect.
That statement is mostly saying that everyone experiences binge eating when dealing with

MOOD AFFECTS EATING HABITS

negative moods. However some dont believe this they would say that not everyone experiences
this this is true in my case, about four years ago my friend died his name was Michael Ramirez
after his passing I hardly ate and drank anything for about two weeks so in this case I would have
been put in the other half of the earlier statement.
Now, there is the unexpected twist the affect that happiness has on eating habits whether
it is good to add this Im going to do it anyway. Happiness is a precious thing to have the feeling
that everything is good and it is going to be okay everybody struggles to obtain it some
unfortunately dont obtain as much as they should but that is another topic. In Cardi Vs journal
she states that she did an experiment on twins with anorexic symptoms, which is the illness that
you are fat and usually end up throwing up the food they eat, in the 14 days that the experiment
the two girls got improved results on their eating habits they started eating when they were
hunger, did not throw it up and were generally happier people. This is good just another example
of the beauty of being happy can do for us because in the end its all mental.
On the topic of experiments in one journal written by Turner S called Emotional and
uncontrolled eating styles and chocolate chip cookie consumption. A controlled trial of the
effects of positive mood enhancement about a group of women exposed to positive videos to
see how the two groups would react. The experiment had a plate of cookies in two different
rooms with the women split up both groups ate around 2-3 cookies while watching the positive
videos. This shows us that during positive moods the women subconcuncly didnt need to eat
when watching the videos. This also shows us that the means of over/under eating is again all in
the mind.

MOOD AFFECTS EATING HABITS

Anger is the driving force that leads to regret that is the bad of anger the good is what we
use the anger on, studying more, winning a race, and defending your way of life. But it can be
used to affect our eating habits, mostly by getting people to stop eating. I know that I am a victim
of this when I get angry I dont eat until I cool down or worse release my anger on someone
nearby. But Bradly A in his journal Response style and vulnerability to anger-induced eating in
obese adults says different he says that anger causes people to eat more he finds out when
overweight people got angry they ate but everyone else did not.
Stress is the one thing in this world that drives people to do unforgiving things it can be
brought on by school meaning final exams or mid-terms, work report due or inspections, any of
these things and many others can cause stress. If we were to connect stress to eating habits it
would split up in two different directions which would be eat or dont eat. When some people are
stressed and I am a part of this group is that when we are over stressed out we lose our appetite
which causes us to go long periods of time where we dont eat it is bad in a cents that if it were to
go long for more than three days it could cause serious health problems mostly being that our
bodies eat themselves. On the other side of the coin where people dealing with stress do eat they
would eat too much with no sign of stopping which could lead to overweight making it even
more stressful later on and then they would eat more, it is a vicious cycle.
Finally, we have the nah sayers everyone knows they are the people that are always
against the other person but there is a plus for those people I mean seriously how boring will it
be to not argue with someone. Depression could be argued that that is the only bad habit causer
but some people are born being overweight and underweight it is not caused by depression.
Anger may come after depression but not always, depression is still there to help out on all
events but it is not the main cause.

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In conclusion, mood greatly affects our eating habits it is not just depression but also
anger, happiness helps keep our eating habits under control. Then there is the experiments nice to
know that there are people willing to find out the problems. So there you have it mood is the
main cause for bad eating habits sure they are the overweight at birth but I am discussing the
once they were normal before getting to that place.

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Reference summary

Ambwani, S. (2015, September 20). Negative affect, interpersonal perception, and binge eating
behavior: An experience sampling study. EMPIRICAL ARTICLE, 715-726.
Cardi, V. (2013, December 20). The impact of experimentally-induced positive mood on affect,
eating behaviour, and eating-related responses. Science Direct, 472-472.
Haedt-Matt, A. (2014, December 6). Do emotional eating urges regulate affect? Concurrent and
prospective associations and implications for risk models of binge eating. BRIEF REPORT, 874877.
Bekker, M. (2004, December 1). Effects of negative mood induction and impulsivity on selfperceived emotional eating. 461-469.
Turner, S. (2010, February 7). Emotional and uncontrolled eating styles and chocolate chip
cookie consumption. A controlled trial of the effects of positive mood enhancement. Appetite,
143-149.
Raspopow, K. (2013, March 12). Unsupportive social interactions influence emotional eating
behaviors. The role of coping styles as mediators. Appetite, 143-149.
Appelhans, B., Whited, M., Schneider, K., Oleski, J., & Pagoto, S. (2011). Response style and
vulnerability to anger-induced eating in obese adults. Eating Behaviors, 12(1), 9-14.