The Influence of Emotion on Food Consumption

Pixars 2015 film, Inside Out features five main emotions that we all have as humans,
which are: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust. Each emotion has a role in our lives, and we
get a glimpse of how they may work through the main character Riley, as she deals with some
life changes. One can almost picture bright and sunny Joy dancing around. Sadness slowly
moves in a lethargic manner while wearing casual clothing. Fear is dressed impeccably and is
always aware of multiple worst case scenarios. Anger is impatient and always wanting action.
Disgust tends to know exactly what she wants and rejects what may be harmful, whether socially
or physically as it relates to eating (Docter). Thinking of these distinctly different emotions made
me wonder what effect does different emotions have on what, how much, and when we eat? This
paper will look at eating through the lens of the five different major emotions: happiness,
sadness, fear, disgust, and anger.
Food is involved in just about every major celebration we have. Why is this? In the article
Characteristics of eating in anger, fear, sadness, and joy M. Macht analyzed the influences of
emotions on eating through a questionnaire. Bach to the previous question of why does food
tend to go along with most celebrations, Macht found that part of it has to do with learned
associations with eating, like the stereotypical birthday party always having cake (136). Another
example of this learned association is with chocolate. In Exploring comfort food preferences
across age and gender, scientists B. Wansink, M. Cheny, and N. Chan examine preferences
toward comfort foods by using two studies that find preferred comfort foods. The second also
takes gender and age group into account (Chan, Cheny and Wansink). They found that many
people view chocolate as a treat because of positive connotations of gift giving and reward

developed from childhood (Chan, Cheny and Wansink). I have been in multiple classes in
school that had little chocolates, or other similar sweets, given as rewards for things such as
correct answers, birthdays, and good behavior.
Chocolate is around, or at least advertised, for holidays such as Christmas, Valentines
Day, Easter, Halloween, and others. A reason for it being a comfort food is because it is around
during good times, and during the harder times. Something such as chocolate can remind one of
good memories in the past, which can give hope for the future. One example of this is the Candy
Bomber, Gail Halvorsen, who dropped candy to children in Germany during World War II. This
act of kindness boosted the morale of those children (Treu).
The candy given to the German children comforted them during an unsettling time. This
helps show that positive social contexts in combination with positive orosensory attributes
provide the important associations needed for foods to become comfort foods (Chan, Cheny and
Wansink). So, for a certain food to become a comfort food, it needs to appeal to the senses
involving hardness, texture, smell, and other sensations. Comfort foods can consist of both
snack-related foods and meal-related foods (Chan, Cheny and Wansink). In other words,
comfort foods can range from things such as ice cream, chocolate, and chips, to more hearty
foods like pasta, and pizza.
Comfort food can be helpful emotionally with some things, like failed tests, or
relationships, but it may not be as helpful for some of those that are grieving the death of a loved
one. I remember when one of my friends died in high school, and during that time of grief, my
desire to eat lessened. When negative emotions like this are felt, one might not be calm enough

to eat as he or she would normally. Another part of feeling emotions associated with sadness is
that there may be a lessened concern for how others may view ones eating habits.
There are many kids that may have been told by others that if he or she accidentally eats a
watermelon seed, a watermelon would grow inside of him or her. The child may initially be
afraid of eating watermelon, because of not wanting a watermelon to grow inside, but soon
enough discovers that eating watermelon seeds does not make a watermelon grow inside. Others
may be afraid of different foods because of allergies to them, which would make slightly more
sense, especially if the allergic reaction could be fatal.
Once again, there are many children that sneak sweets and other junk foodI know I was
one of them, eating cheese under a table, or stumbling upon some goodies when no one else was
around (Of course I later learned to either ask for the food, or ignore the tempting food by eating
something else, like fruit). The funny thing is that when children grow older, it seems that there
are many more opportunities to access junk food at work or school, and when not eating as
healthy, we feel guilty, and may try to get others to partake of the unhealthy food too, so that the
conscience can be eased somewhat.
As opposed to feeling guilty for eating something unhealthy, others may be afraid that
if they dont eat, they wont survive. Jonathan Saffron Foers grandmother, who was a European
Jew that survived World War II is a good example of this. She ate just about anything to survive.
This contributed to her belief that no foods are bad for you and bigger foods are better (Foer
449). As a Jew running from the Germans, she was in a different society than todays in America.
Instead of struggling with obesity, she struggled to maintain life. A possible question that she,

and other like her, would ask is: Will I eat today? She knew that the more food she was able to
scavenge, the more likely she would survive.
In Inside Out, there is a clip where the main character, Riley as a young toddler, refuses
to eat broccoli. In Rileys mind, Disgust is suspicious of the color of the food, and the way it is
presented to her, thinking it might be dangerous, so Riley moves the broccoli away from her.
Interestingly enough, we once again see her aversion to broccoli years later as a pre-teen, when
she goes with her family to get pizza, and broccoli is on the pizza. The broccoli ruined the
pizza for her (Docter).
Taste tends to be subjective, for example, we see that Riley does not like broccoli. I do
not like broccoli either, but my mother loves it. Just because someone likes, or dislikes, certain
foods does not mean that someone else likes, or dislikes, that same food.
Complete nutrition cannot be found in a single food, and the body seeks to gain a balance
in nutrients by decreasing the pleasantness of a food after its consumption.This change
in hedonic response to a food is associated with the decreased consumption of that food
and a shift to other food choices that may provide important nutritional and dietary
variety.The need for such dietary variety can be initiated by food cravingsintense
desires to eat particular foods. These cravings can reflect the bodys natural response to
nutrient or caloric deficiencies and can influence snacking behavior (Chan, Cheny and
Wansink).
As humans, we need a variety of food to help us be healthy, and our bodies resist certain foods,
when it has had enough of that food. That is why it loses its appeal. When we crave specific

foods, it is fulfill a nutritional need in the body. The body tries to be more balanced, and Mary
Maxfield, a graduate student at Bowling Green University, would probably agree, since she says
that adult humans will eat in a way that is good for them, given the opportunity (Maxfield
446). Most of us instinctively know that eating different foods in moderation is better than trying
to figure out what to exclude (except for those with allergies).
Jonathan Saffron Foer, author and New York college professor who grew up as an on-and
off vegetarian, wrote: Mark Twain said that quitting smoking is among the easiest things you
can do; he did it all the time. I would add vegetarianism to the list of easy things (Foer 452).
This is ironic because when someone quits or ends something, it is expected that the person
would not go back to it. There must be some appeal to smoking for Mark Twain, and appeal to
Foer of being a partial vegetarian. Apparently, Foer does not think of the meat as disgusting, in
fact the reason he used to eat meat was because it tasted good (Foer453). The idea of eating
hurt animals disgusts some people to the point of deciding to not eat any meatbecome
vegetarian.
Some people refrain from eating food if it is viewed as disgusting, but others may refrain
from eating food because of anger. When one is angry, one is more likely to either just shovel
food in, absent-mindedly, or restrict his or her self from eating. One can almost picture Anger
saying something like, Why did you eat those brownies? Now you are going to get fat! Because
you ate unhealthy food, you cannot eat anything else for the next meal! Emotion is for sure not
logical, since reason would come back with something like, Brownies are not very healthy, but
maybe it could be compensated by eating some fruits or vegetables later (or now if one is still
hungry).

Eating disorders can be like thispunishing ones self because of feeling angry for not
measuring up to certain standards, whether from external pressures, or self-imposed. In our
culture, we hear of those that try so hard to be healthy, and experiment with many different diets,
which can be dangerous if taken to an extreme, and bring on an eating disorder like anorexia
nervosa, or bulimia. American society in general admires those that are healthy, like athletes,
or those that are externally beautiful, like models, while those who are overweight might be
overlooked and treated unkindly. Society views fatness [as] fatal and thinness [as] immortal
(Maxfield 445). This illustrates the extreme of much of our thinking overall, since there are some
people that are thickly built amongst all of the different ethnicities. Maxfield also reminds us that
foodisnt moral or immoral. Inherently, food is ethically neutralhealthy and unhealthy are
projected onto it by culture (446). Food relates to tools; both can be used for either good or bad,
and much of how we view them has to do with experience with them. Still, eating a pastry, as
described above, can cause some people to feel shame because of a belief that it could contribute
to their gaining weight, and there is the possibility of others looking down on them as unhealthy.
Each person does his or her best to eat how he or she feels is best for him or her, and it is okay to
eat food that is not perfectly healthy.
During negative emotions like anger, action tendencies are considered as essential
components that differentiate between emotionsFrijdaet al. (1989) defene a state of action
readiness, as the individuals readiness or unreadiness to engage in interaction with the
environment (Macht 136). When people experience anger when eating, there is more of a
chance of eating junk foods, and there is little thought, if any when eating, because they are want
to do something and sometimes the only thing that can be thought of to do is eat, especially for
situations that a person knows that he, or she, cannot change. Along these lines, anger

possibly plays a major role in emotionally elicited binge eating. Binge eaters described
anger/frustration prior to a binge 42% of the time (Macht 137). So, when someone is angry,
they may either gobble down food without really thinking about it, or restrain him or herself
from eating. Anger tends to seek for action or some type, even if it is repressing ones self.
As can be seen above, there are many different factors that impact how we view foods,
ranging from eating to survive, eating for health, or just eating without taking a thought of what
is going inside the body. Asides from the variables of picking something based on the size of
portion of food, checking the ingredients (for those with allgeries or other food restrictions), and
determining whether one is hungry or not, the factors of seeing what others are getting, thinking
about one is in the mood for, and thinking on past experiences (if any) of having tried this food
or anything similar help us in our daily food choiceslike choosing between soup or salad.
Our food choices today are also influenced by personal circumstances, and culture. It has been
generally found that social-affective contexts can influence food preferences and that childhood
experiences can be critical in forming life-long food consumption preferences and habits (Chan,
Cheny and Wansink). We all have different backgrounds and different environments when
growing up that influence our diet, and all of this impacts the feelings we have toward food, and
also the feelings that can come from the different foods we eat. We eat to survive, eat something
to get comfort, eat something because it tastes good, and eat just to do something, or even
sometimes refrain from eating.
Works Cited
Chan, N, M Cheny and B Wansink. "Exploring comfort food preferences across age and
gender." Physiolgy and Behavior (2003): 739-747. Article.

Inside Out. Dir. Pete Docter. Perf. Amy Pohler and Phyllis Smith. 2015. Film.
Macht, M. "Characteristics of eating in anger, fear, sadness, and joy." Appetite 33 (1999):
129-139. article.
Meet the Mormons. Dir. Blair Treu. Perf. Ken Niumatalolo, et al. 2014. Film.