Feeling bad makes you crave it, lose it, and then do it: How negative emotions lead to binge eating.

What is it about?

Patients with bulimia nervosa often report that negative emotions can be a reason why they binge eat. Indeed, studies show that negative emotions often increase in the hours before a binge eating episode. However, why do negative emotions make patients binge? To explore this question, we followed patients with bulimia nervosa in their daily lives and asked them to report their emotions and behaviors through a smartphone app. From their responses, we found that negative emotions increased craving for a binge eating episode and led to more rash behavior, increasing the chance for a binge eating episode to happen. This means that negative emotions made patients want to binge, as well as lose control over this desire, making a binge eating episode more likely. However, we also found that negative emotions can make patients not eat at all at other moments. This is not surprising as this has also been found in the general population. Negative emotions therefore have competing effects on eating behaviors in patients with bulimia nervosa, whereby they either make patients want to binge eat and lose control, or make them control their eating behavior even more.

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Photo by Spencer Davis on Unsplash

Photo by Spencer Davis on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This study is the first to show that negative emotions cause patients with bulimia nervosa and act more rashly, and that this then leads to binge eating. Furthermore, it is the first to highlight that negative emotions actually have competing effects on eating behaviors in patients with bulimia nervosa, as they can also lead to not eating. Future research should therefore pay attention to these competing effects and explore when negative emotions lead to binge eating, and when they lead to not eating.

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