Eating behaviour
Restrictive eating and
overeating were assessed with the question12: “Which
of the following best describes you?” and participants were asked to
select one of the following four options: “It’s easy for me to eat
about the amount I need to”; “I quite often eat more than I actually
need”; “I often try to restrict my eating”, and “At times, I’m on a
strict diet, at others I overeat”. Following the original
publication12, we named these eating styles as normal
eating, overeating, restrictive eating, alternating
restrictive/overeating, respectively, and used normal eating as
reference category in the statistical analyses.
A 12-item questionnaire12 was used to assess the
different eating styles. Snacking behaviour was assessed using
five items: “During mealtimes I eat sufficiently – I don’t need to
snack between meals.”, “My meals are often replaced by snacks.”, “My
food consumption is highest in the evening.”, “I graze throughout the
evening.” and “While I am eating, I watch TV, etc.”.Health-conscious eating was assessed using three items: “I
attempt to maintain healthy eating patterns.”, “I avoid fatty foods.”
and “I avoid calories.”. Emotional eating was assessed using
two items: “I reward myself often with good food.” and “I
console myself by eating or drinking.”. Externally cued eatingwas assessed using one item: “My eating is triggered by seeing
food, food advertisements, etc.”. Night eating was assessed
using one item: “I wake up to eat at night.”, however, this eating
style was not included in the analysis of current study, since similar
to earlier findings12, it emerged rarely among the
participants. For each item, participating women were asked to choose
one of the four options that best describes their overall eating style:
usually, often, sometimes, seldom. Responses were dichotomized by
combining usually/often and sometimes/seldom.