Body dissatisfaction is an important risk and maintenance factor for eating disorders (Graber, Brooks-Gunn, Paikoff, & Warren, 1994; Killen et al., 1996; Stice, 2002). In contrast to earlier views of body satisfaction as a stable and trait-like feature, it is now known that body satisfaction fluctuates considerably, depending on the situation and the environment in which it is measured (Cash, Fleming, Alindogan, Steadman, & Whitehead, 2002; Tiggemann, 2001). This fluctuation has been found to be more pronounced in people prone to body dissatisfaction (Tiggemann, 2001). Exposure to foods, in particular high-caloric foods, is expected to elicit schemas related to overeating, possibly resulting in heightened body dissatisfaction (Thompson, Coovert, Pasman, & Robb, 1993). Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to shed light on how body satisfaction fluctuates in response to food exposure, and how this is affected by participants’ restraint status and the caloric content of foods.
Concerns about weight and shape are closely related to attempts to restrict one's food intake (Herman & Polivy, 1980). Exposure to food therefore is likely to activate concerns about caloric content, overeating, and related issues like body dissatisfaction in those worried about their weight and shape (Corte & Stein, 2005). Indeed, exposure to food has been found to increase body dissatisfaction and negative affect in studies with bulimic patients (Bulik, Lawson, & Carter, 1996; Carter, Bulik, Lawson, Sullivan, & Wilson, 1996; Legenbauer, Vögele, & Rüddel, 2004; Mauler, Hamm, Weike, & Tuschen-Caffier, 2006; McKenzie, Williamson, & Cubic, 1993; Neudeck, Florin, & Tuschen-Caffier, 2001). However, because these studies typically used patients’ binge foods as food cues, a decrease in body satisfaction might largely reflect learned negative associations between binge food and bingeing/purging.
To investigate whether exposure to food affects body satisfaction independent of negative associations with bingeing and purging, it is essential to look at the effects of food exposure in people who are vulnerable to problematic eating behaviours but in all likelihood unaffected by bulimia. Restrained eaters represent such a group because they are constantly struggling with their natural appetite and their goal to lose weight (Herman & Polivy, 1980), but rarely engage in bingeing and purging (Lowe et al., 1996). They can be considered as being on a continuum between unrestrained eaters and bulimic patients (Lowe et al., 1996).
Studies with restrained eaters have focussed on measuring the effects of food consumption, but not food exposure, on body satisfaction. Vocks, Legenbauer, and Heil (2007) found that body satisfaction decreased after milkshake consumption. This effect was stronger in those scoring higher on restraint than in those scoring lower on restraint. In contrast, Wardle and Foley (1989) report a more pronounced decrease of body satisfaction in unrestrained eaters after food consumption, compared to restrained eaters. Overall, however, the restrained participants displayed lower levels of body satisfaction than the unrestrained participants. In a study of Pietrowsky, Straub, and Hachl (2003), restrained eaters indicated lower body satisfaction when hungry than when sated. Finally, Lattimore (2005) found that changes in body satisfaction after the consumption of a main meal were not at all moderated by dietary restraint but by body mass index. Overall, the results of these studies are inconsistent, possibly due to methodological differences (see Vocks et al., 2007). Additionally, food consumption studies pose interpretive problems because the physical effects of digestion or other bodily signals (like a bloated or rumbling stomach) cannot be distinguished from cognitive effects (e.g., the potential threat of food to dietary restraint).
To eliminate the interpretive problems with both food consumption studies and studies with bulimic patients, the present study examines the influence of high- and low-caloric food exposure on body and weight satisfaction in a nonclinical population. This allows investigating whether exposure to food affects body and weight satisfaction (a) independent of digestive effects and (b) independent of learned associations with bingeing and purging. Apart from general body satisfaction, a measure of weight satisfaction was included as well, because it taps a potentially more food-sensitive aspect of body satisfaction.
In sum, the aim of the current study is to examine whether mere exposure to high-caloric foods in comparison to low-caloric foods decreases body and weight satisfaction, and whether this relationship is moderated by dietary restraint. Because high-caloric foods should evoke cognitive schemas related to overeating more than low-caloric foods, and because high-restrained eaters are known to be concerned about their weight, it is hypothesized that specifically high-caloric food exposure leads to a decrease in body and weight satisfaction with increasing levels of restraint.
