Characterization of the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire scores of a young French cohort.

The aims of our study were to characterize the psychological dimensions of eating behaviour of young French adults as measured by the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ) and to analyze the association between the 3 TFEQ mean scores (main scales and subscales) and gender, Body Mass Index (BMI) and socio-demographic data in this population. An online TFEQ questionnaire was used with a nationally representative sample of 1000 young French people (aged 20-39yrs). The average scores were 6.3±0.1 (sem) for dietary restraint, 6.0±0.1 for disinhibition and 5.0±0.1 for hunger. Compared to the limit commonly used in human food studies, young French adults were characterized by low restraint and low disinhibition levels. There was a significant gender effect on both restraint and disinhibition scores, with women showing significantly higher scores than men. Concerning the link between TFEQ scores and BMI, there was a significant effect of the BMI category on cognitive restraint, disinhibition and hunger. Disinhibition was the factor most strongly associated to BMI, independently of gender. Our results highlight both the importance of taking into account not only disinhibition but also cognitive restraint and the usefulness of subscales when studying eating behaviour and its link to body weight. We characterize the eating behaviour of a French cohort with criteria often chosen for healthy volunteers in human food studies. Consequently, we suggest new TFEQ limits (6 for cognitive restraint and disinhibition, 5 for hunger) lower than those traditionally used for this category of the population in clinical food studies.

Implicit wanting and explicit liking are markers for trait binge eating. A susceptible phenotype for overeating.

The present study used a measure of trait binge eating (Binge Eating Scale; BES) to examine its association with behavioural markers of appetite and food reward. Non-obese female participants consumed a preload before freely selecting and consuming from a test meal. Subjective hunger and hedonic measures of explicit liking and implicit wanting for food were obtained. Food selection and intake of the test meal were measured. Findings were compared according to individual differences in trait binge eating. BES scores correlated with BMI, food intake and selection of high fat sweet foods in the test meal. Comparison of BES scores revealed that higher scores were associated with weaker suppression of hunger after the preload, greater explicit liking for food generally, and increased implicit wanting for high fat sweet food. Trait binge eating is functional at low levels and implicit wanting measured simultaneously with explicit liking may be useful markers for reward-driven overconsumption in this susceptible phenotype.