New research published in the journal Nutrients sheds light a fascinating facet of human behavior: the role of social support in mitigating stress-induced overeating. The study found that participants who received support from friends reported feeling less stressed, chose smaller food portions, and consumed fewer snacks during periods of acute stress.
Stress-induced overeating, commonly referred to as comfort eating, is a behavioral response where individuals consume food in excess, particularly high-calorie, fat, or sugar-laden foods, as a way to cope with emotional stress or discomfort. This behavior is thought to provide a temporary escape from stress, offering a sense of relief and satisfaction through the pleasurable experience of eating. However, while this may seem like a harmless coping mechanism, it carries significant long-term health risks, including obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.
The researchers sought to identify potential strategies to mitigate these unhealthy eating habits, focusing on preventive measures that can be integrated into daily life. In particularly, they sought to better understand the role of social support as a potential buffer against the compulsion to overeat in response to stress. To this end, they conducted two experiments.
In their first study, the researchers recruited 138 participants through campus advertisements and a digital research platform. These participants were predominantly young adults, with a higher proportion of females, reflecting a college-aged demographic.
Participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups: those receiving support from a best friend, support from a stranger, a group instructed to self-regulate without specific guidelines (decrease group), and a control group that received no specific regulation instructions (look group). The friend group was unique in that participants were asked to bring along their best friend, who was not romantically involved with them, to provide support.
The procedure for Experiment 1 unfolded in several stages, starting with baseline measurements of stress, hunger, and emotional state. Following this, participants were subjected to a stress induction task, designed to elevate stress levels uniformly across the board. This was achieved through a simulated public speaking task, a well-documented method for inducing stress in laboratory settings. After the stress induction, the support manipulation was introduced, varying according to group assignment. The session concluded with participants selecting portions from an array of high- and low-calorie foods.
The researchers found that participants who received support from their friends reported significantly lower levels of perceived stress and chose smaller portions of both high- and low-calorie foods compared to their counterparts in the other three groups.
Experiment 2, which included 136 participants, aimed to extend the investigation to actual food consumption following stress induction and support manipulation. The setup was similar, with participants divided into the same four groups. However, this experiment introduced a Food Incentive Delay (FID) task and a bogus tasting task to measure not just the preference but the actual intake of high- versus low-calorie foods under stress conditions.
The results were consistent with the hypothesis that social support, particularly from friends, can lead to a reduction in stress-induced overeating. Participants in the friend group consumed fewer calories from both high- and low-calorie foods than those in the other groups.
Notably, the reduction in calorie intake was not just a result of eating less high-calorie food; participants also showed a moderated intake of low-calorie foods, indicating a general reduction in the need to eat as a stress response, rather than a simple shift in food preference.
The findings that the emotional and cognitive support provided by friends plays a critical role in reducing the appeal of comfort foods as a coping mechanism for stress. The mechanism appears to involve an improvement in emotional state and self-efficacy, with participants feeling more capable of handling their stress in a healthy manner and less driven to seek solace in food.
But there are some limitations to consider. The participant pool, mainly young adults from a college setting, suggests a need for broader demographic research to confirm these findings across different age groups and possibly in clinical settings. Additionally, the study’s gender dynamics, predominantly female, point towards a gap in understanding how social support might differentially affect men and women in the context of stress-induced eating.
Looking ahead, the researchers advocate for further exploration into the neural mechanisms underlying the relationship between social support and eating behavior. This future direction could illuminate how the brain processes social and food-related rewards, offering deeper insights into the psychological and neurobiological foundations of comfort eating.
“Overall, the present study elucidated the mechanisms by which social support influences stress-induced overeating behaviors. It also suggests a referential protective factor for people’s physical and mental health in the current unpredictable social environment, as well as providing ideas for therapeutic interventions for clinical eating disorders,” the researchers concluded.
The study, “Support from a Best Friend Makes People Eat Less under Stress: Evidence from Two Experiments,” was authored by by Mingyue Xiao, Yijun Luo, Weiyu Zeng, and Hong Chen.
