AJHE Table of Contents
Food Craving Intensity and Gender Differences
Iva Klimesova, Milan Elfmark, and Jiri Stelzer
Food craving is often defined as “the intense desire to
eat a specific food.” Typically, people eat when they
are hungry. However, the desire to eat could be influenced by many different factors and stimuli. The smell
of fresh bread could influence a food craving for bread,
and the sight of the bakery could influence a food
craving for anything sweet. Also, food cravings were
found to be focused on foods which people consider
tasting good, with a high content of sugar and low
nutrition values, rather than those consisting of high-quality nutrition.
In the past, researchers studied the reasons for and
consequences of food cravings. The amount of stimulus
or reward sensitivity that people get through consuming
food is a great predictor of food craving intensity. Pavlov
used dogs in his research to study psychological responses
to a stimulus and found out that the sound of a bell
ringing when giving food caused the dogs to salivate
when only the sound of the bell was present. Franken
and Muris used Gray’s Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory in an attempt to explain how different stimuli or reward
sensitivity may determine what causes an individual’s
cravings. They confirmed Pavlov’s finding that the relationship between a stimulus or reward sensitivity and
food cravings was positively correlated. They also stated that “Food craving is driven by the presence of a stimulus
that predicts the rewarding effect of food.” Later
research, however, focused more on a combination of
impulsivity/reward sensitivity. Giel et al., after his review
of 20 studies since 2012 on obesity/binge eating disorder
concluded that stimulus or reward sensitivity plays a role
in earlier stages of overeating, while rash impulsivity plays
a greater role in the progression to more additive food
consumption.
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