Foods and Nutritional Characteristics Associated With Addictive-Like Eating

Participants recruited via MTurk were first presented with a description of the study including the purpose (to better understand features of addictive-like eating) and anticipated time commitment (15 minutes). Next, participants viewed an informed consent document which they were instructed to read carefully before indicating their willingness to participate. After providing consent, participants were directed to the study survey. Participants were compensated 50 cents for completion of the study.

First, we aimed to identify the most commonly reported foods associated with addictive-like eating as well as their nutritional characteristics by coding the calories and amount of fat, carbohydrates, sugar, sodium, and glycemic index for each reported food. Given prior research, we hypothesized that the vast majority of foods reported would be highly processed. Next, we aimed to identify the most prominent macronutrients associated with addictive-like eating by coding reported foods as high or low on fat, carbohydrates, sugar, and sodium and evaluating their predictive power on addictive-like eating.