Abstract
Aim/objectives
To know the relationship between food consumption and mood changes and the effects it has on body weight.
Research Methodology
The research was carried out in United Arabs Emirates (UAE). The sample was UAE females who indulge in unhealthy foods depending on their moods which results in weight gain. The sample size was a hundred females. The data were collected using structured questionnaires that were distributed amongst the women who responded to and returned them.
Results
The results of the research were that most people engage in food when they are in a foul mood. The reason for this kind of behavior is to help ease stress. Once they have eaten a lot of food and they are so full, they forget that they were stressed or sad. Food in such a case acts as a temporary stress reliever. These are mostly carbohydrates. Carbohydrates also provide the body with energy and make one feel relaxed. These foods in turn lead to weight gain.
Conclusion
The results of the research indicate that most women gain weight due to eating foods in times of stress. Suggestions are that exercise is important to maintain healthy lifestyles. Reasons why people crave certain foods could be because of anger or frustrations, boredom or excitement. Emotional hunger feels urgent and therefore one is forced to eat junk and fast foods which are unhealthy. People also crave for food when they have missed a meal and they feel low on energy or hungry.
Introduction
Certain foods which may include sugary snacks and whole grain foods have effects on the brain. Moreover, they play a role in regulating the moods. This is because carbohydrates help the body to relax. According to Chitale (2008), the most effective way to stabilise mood is to eat a balanced diet. This should include proteins, carbohydrates and vitamins, coupled with a lot of exercise.
While people may tend to eat more of unhealthy food when they are either happy or sad, they tend to eat more when they are sad. Happy people want to maintain their mood for a short period and therefore they consider the long-term effects. They look at the nutritional information of the food they are eating in order to achieve their goal. When one is stressed, they look at the fastest solutions which prompts them to engage in fasts foods whose salt and fats contents are very high better (Burns & Bush, 2010).
Research problem
The research problem is to know how people’s eating habits are affected by their mood. We would like to know the kind of foods that people prefer to eat when they are sad or when their mood is low and the reasons as to why they choose those kinds of foods. We also want to know how this kind of eating affects body weight.
Research Objectives
The Aim of the survey is to find out why people overeat when they are sad.
We want to find out.
What kinds of food do people eat when they are moody?
The amounts of food people eat when they are moody
How these foods affect their body weight?
The above questions will help us to establish the relationship between mood changes and their impact on eating habits.
Research methodology
The topic chosen is about mood changes and eating habits. Data were collected using structured questioners which were distributed among UAE women. Each questioner contained 21 questions. The research data were tabulated using SSP program. The sample size chosen was 100 respondents.
Population
The sample was drawn from United Arab Emirates amongst the women of UAE.
Sample plan
The sample plan used to select the sample from the population for use in this survey was convenient because it is women who mostly engage in overeating because of mood changes. Women also tend to watch their weight, and thus avoid some foods or go on diets to help them lose weight. That is why they were important for this survey.
Sample size
The sample size used was 100. The respondents were helpful because they responded to all the questions in the questioner which helped us obtain information necessary for the survey. The different age groups of the respondents were also important in this research.
The research aimed at establishing when people engage in food more and the kind of foods they engage in. It also intended to establish whether exercise helps to increase their moods and if so, how and what kind of exercise. The ages and educational levels of respondents were also important in this research.
They were important because they influenced knowledge about nutritional value of choice of food. Educated people are in a position to engage in more healthy foods as compared to illiterate people or those who have less information about nutritional value in food.
According to Burns and Bush (2010), the link between what one eats, their mood and their energy is much more immediate. She indicates that certain foods affect mood for better or for worse. If one is sad and they eat a higher fiber diet, they immediately become happy. Diet also affects mood in that when one skips a meal, they tend to feel so tired and hungry and end up overeating over the next meal so as to ‘compensate’ the nutrients and energy they missed.
The research found out that people who eat high carbohydrates diets were generally happy than those who ate simple carbohydrates low in fiber were always tired. The reason is that high carbohydrates diets triggered the ‘feel good’ hormone making them feel happy as compared to the other group of dieters. Foods such as leafy greens were found out to boost the mood of those who consumed them.
Conclusion
According to this research, mood changes do affect eating habits which intern lead to unhealthy weight gain. When stressed people tend to eat large amounts of unhealthy food. It is important for people to avoid overeating as a result of stress, and to consider healthy lifestyles. Exercise plays an important role in maintaining good health. It is advisable for people to embrace exercise. Certain diets also affect mood changes. There are certain foods when consumed cause one to be in a happy mood while others cause one to be tired and unhappy.
To maintain a healthy lifestyle, it is important to avoid eating for comfort or because of the mood at that particular time. This research showed that when most women are sad or are stressed, they turn to eating. Some of them just love fatty foods, while some of them are forced to eat more than they need by social life and customs.
References List
Burns, A. C., & Bush, F., (2010). Marketing Research. USA: Prentice – Hall.
Chitale, R., (2008). What you feel you eat, ABC News. ABC News Medical Unit