Influence of Episodic Memory on Healthy Eating

Episodic memory is the capacity to remember past autobiographic events, including eating episodes. Recalling a previous meal decreases the amount eaten in a subsequent snack occasion.

Recall of recent eating episodes could alert individuals about the relationship between their eating behaviour and wellbeing. This is supported by the observation in slimming trials that participants who keep a food diary lose more weight than those who do not record their intake.

Lab experiments have focused on the effect of eating episodic memory on later intake of unhealthy food. However, less is known about the effect on intake of healthy food. Increasing consumption of food that contains nutritious elements like fruit could protect against chronic disease. If eating episodic memory would increase intake of healthy food, this would benefit individuals' health.

The aim of the present between-subjects experiment is to test the influence of memory of recent eating episodes on fruit and vegetable consumption. The interest is to assess differences in amount of fruit/vegetables eaten in each of two conditions: (i) after a recall of eating episodes of the day before and (ii) after recall of activities of the day before excluding eating episodes. The hypothesis is that fruit/vegetable consumption after recalling eating episodes would be higher than after recalling non-eating related activities.

The project will consist of four individual studies varying weight status of participants and test food: i) Female with healthy weight, and fruit as test food; ii) Female with healthy weight, and vegetable as test food; iii) Female with unhealthy weight, and fruit as test food; and iv) Female with unhealthy weight, and vegetable as test food.

Inclusion criteria

• Age 18-25 years old
• Body mass index within ranges of healthy weight and overweight or slight obesity (18.5 to 24.9 and 25.0 to 34.9 kilograms divided by squared height)

Exclusion criteria

• Fruit hypersensibility
• Vegetable hypersensibility
• Chronic ill health