Chocolate craving: does it affect eating attitude and body mass index?
ISSN: 0034-6659
Article publication date: 7 January 2022
Issue publication date: 9 August 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Some kinds of foods, by producing an effect like addiction, may trigger overeating. This paper aims to investigate whether excessive chocolate consumption and hunger cause food addiction.
Design/methodology/approach
Food cravings questionnaire-trait-reduced (FCQ-T-r), food cravings questionnaire-state (FCQ-S) and eating attitude test-26 (EAT-26) scales were used. The relation between chocolate addiction, anthropometric measurements, demographic characteristics, eating behavior of the people were analyzed. The study was conducted on 864 individuals between 17 and 64 years old (men = 327, women = 537).
Findings
As the body mass index (BMI) of the individuals increased, chocolate craving, chocolate hunger, thought of eating chocolate, lack of control of chocolate increased. Also, significant correlations were determined with BMI, respectively, (r = 0.39; r = 0.32; r = 0.33; r = 0.29; p < 0.001). The lack of control overeating chocolate, craving for chocolate was found to be higher in female participants than in male participants. It was seen that craving for chocolate decreases (r = −0.17; p < 0.001) with increasing age; this was more apparent in male participants compared to female participants. Besides, significant correlation was found (r = 0.76, p < 0.05) between the EAT-26, the craving to eat chocolate in this study. It was seen that individual, who were excessively eager to consume chocolate, exhibited abnormal eating behavior (29.50 ± 12.09). This showed that there is a positive relation (r = 0.08, p < 0.001) between food addiction, eating attitude disorder.
Originality/value
Food craving increases the consumption of food, especially chocolate, sugar, with high carbohydrate content and energy. This can lead to overeating and being overweight.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank all participants of the study. They are warmly acknowledged for their helpful and wholehearted cooperation.
Credit Authorship Contribution Statement: NS: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Methodology, Software, Investigation, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing – Original Draft, Writing – Review and editing.
BA: Investigation, Data Curation, Writing and Editing.
EE: Investigation, Data Curation, Writing and Editing.
FK: Investigation, Data Curation, Writing and Editing.
BC: Data Analysis, Writing and Editing.
Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all participants involved in the study.
Funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Citation
Sanlier, N., Açıkalın, B., Eroglu, E., Kılınç, F. and Celik, B. (2022), "Chocolate craving: does it affect eating attitude and body mass index?", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 52 No. 6, pp. 943-957. https://doi.org/10.1108/NFS-09-2021-0283
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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