Satiety and food availability modulate the approach and inhibitory responses to food cues in healthy weight participants

The widespread availability of high-calorie foods may disrupt the balance between homeostatic and reward-driven eating behaviors. Cognitive processes like automatic approach tendencies, inhibitory control, and food craving play critical roles in regulating food intake, but the impact of immediate food availability on these processes, and how it interacts with satiety, is unclear. We studied 45 healthy-weight participants using an Approach-Avoidance Task and a Go/No-Go Task to assess approach bias and inhibition towards high- (HC) and low-calorie (LC) foods under fasting and satiety conditions. Crucially, food stimuli were either available or unavailable for immediate consumption after testing. Food intake was measured by offering participants their favorite available foods post-session. When foods were available for immediate consumption, satiety failed to diminish the approach bias for HC and LC foods, indicating that the motivational pull of readily accessible food persists even in a satiated state. Inhibitory control was higher for HC foods, but only for those available, indicating a greater inhibitory effort required toward readily accessible HC foods, independently from satiety. Finally, approach bias and inhibitory control for HC foods independently influenced the relationship between food craving and food intake (of available foods). Individuals with strong trait food cravings consumed more calories during fasting, when accompanied by low inhibitory control, and during satiety if accompanied by moderate-to-high approach tendencies. These findings suggest that food availability plays a crucial role in shaping both motivational and inhibitory control processes, sustaining food-approach tendencies despite satiety and requiring increased cognitive effort to resist high-calorie foods.