Does trait emotional eating intensify stress responses? A quasi‐experimental study on cognitive control, biological reactivity and appetite

OBJECTIVE: Emotional eating (EE), characterized by dysregulated food intake in response to emotional stimuli, is associated with adverse physical and psychological outcomes and has been linked to alterations in executive functioning and stress-related biological reactivity. This study aimed to investigate stress-induced changes in food-related inhibitory control, emotional working memory capacity (eWMC), appetite and fasting blood glucose (FBG) in individuals with high versus low EE. METHOD: Ninety adults (45 high EE, 45 low EE), aged 18-45, were assessed before and after the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Measures included food-related inhibitory control, eWMC, appetite and FBG. RESULTS: The main effect of time was significant for all variables except FBG. However, significant group × time interactions were observed for all outcomes. Specifically, compared with the lowEE group, the highEE group showed greater stress reactivity, with significant post-stress declines in inhibitory control (p < .001), increased appetite (p = .001), increased FBG (p = .043) and weaker eWMC (p < .001). The lowEE group only showed a significant post-stress decline in eWMC scores (p = .01). DISCUSSION: These findings highlight the importance of emotion regulation processes in stress-related eating and metabolic reactivity and may inform prevention and intervention strategies.