![]() In the present study we examined associations with weight for the seven appetitive traits included in the CEBQ scale in a large, community-based, sample of 7 to 12-year-old children. However, a very similar association was reported in a recent community-based study, although this study assessed only two aspects of appetite, Satiety Responsiveness and Enjoyment of Food ( 1). These results supported the idea of a graded association between appetite and weight, rather than an aberrant eating style that is specific to clinically overweight populations, although the authors noted that the small sample size for the underweight group, and the different recruitment methods for overweight/obese and healthy-weight/underweight children, limited the confidence with which conclusions could be drawn. In addition, the underweight group differed from the healthy-weight group, with lower responsiveness to food cues, lower emotional eating, higher satiety responsiveness and greater fussiness. Consistent with previous work, obese/overweight children showed higher responsiveness to food cues, more emotional eating, lower satiety responsiveness and less fussiness than healthy-weight children. One recent study used the Child Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ) ( 23) to index a number of positive and negative appetitive traits, and compared obese/overweight and healthy-weight children, as well as a small sample of underweight children ( 24). In environments with multiple opportunities to eat highly palatable, energy-dense foods, these appetitive traits will moderate the risk of weight gain. Positive responses to food – enjoyment, responsiveness to palatability and rapid consumption - are hypothesised to promote food intake, while sensitivity to internal cues of satiety or fussiness about food are likely to reduce intake. This is consistent with evidence that the same genetic influences determine variation in weight within the healthy range as determine the extremes of obesity ( 22). It has recently been argued that appetitive traits are not only pathogenic for obesity per se, but vary quantitatively across the entire weight distribution and could determine risk of positive energy balance ( 1 2). However, one recent study in young adults found that those who had either gained or lost weight reported more stress than those whose weights were stable ( 21), suggesting that individuals may vary in the extent to which they experience hyperphagic or hypophagic responses to emotional distress. ![]() In practice, empirical studies analysing associations between food intake, weight and stress have not produced entirely consistent results ( 19 20). The idea originated in the ‘psychosomatic theory’ of obesity, which proposed that eating in response to emotional distress rather than hunger was one cause of excessive weight gain ( 17), while more recent analyses suggest that stress can deregulate eating through effects on the reward system ( 18). Ingestive responses to stress or distress have also been proposed as significant influences on food intake. Food fussiness (or pickiness) has also been linked with weight, with picky girls having lower BMI and lower rates of overweight ( 12 13), although this finding has not always been replicated ( 14- 16). ![]() ![]() Heightened desire to consume may go beyond food to include palatable drinks, with intake of high-energy drinks being associated with weight gain ( 11). In the paediatric literature, behavioural studies have shown that obese children have lower responsiveness to internal satiety signals ( 4- 6), eat faster during the course of a meal ( 7- 9) and are more sensitive to external food cues ( 10) than healthy-weight children. Research into the behavioural correlates of obesity has identified a variety of eating behaviour traits in obese children and adults ( 1- 3).
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