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Exposure to food commercials on television is considered to be related to elevated snack food intake in front of the television. However, this assumed relation has as yet not been fully established. The present study, therefore examined the direct effects of watching television food commercials on concurrent non-advertised snack food intake in young adults. In addition, possible sex differences were investigated. Participants (N=82, 50% male) watched a movie interrupted by two commercial breaks that contained either food commercials or neutral commercials. While watching, they could freely eat crisps and chocolate coated peanuts. Afterwards, participants filled out questionnaires and were weighed and measured. Regression analyses showed that men and women were differently affected by the food commercials. Food intake in women was higher when they watched the food commercials than when they watched the neutral commercials, whereas food intake in men was lower when they watched the food commercials than when they watched the neutral commercials. The results suggest that especially women are vulnerable for eating more snack food when exposed to food commercials., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The present study addresses the emergence of emotional eating in adolescence in relation to maternal or paternal psychological control. A reduction of food intake is considered the biological natural response to distress, therefore we tested whether the a-typical stress response of emotional eating develops in interaction with genetic vulnerability. Carrying the A1 allele of the dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) gene Taq1A polymorphism (rs1800497) is associated with reduced dopamine D2 receptor availability in the brain. We hypothesized that carrying this allele would confer risk for the development of emotional eating, particularly so in adolescents with adverse rearing experiences. Participants were 279 Dutch adolescents (average age of 13.4) that participated in a prospective study with a four-year follow-up. We found a moderator effect of DRD2 genotype on the relation between both maternal and paternal psychological control and increases in emotional eating in both sexes. Adolescents showed only an increase in emotional eating in relation to high psychological control if they carried at least one DRD2 A1 allele. This study is the first to show that the relationship between adverse rearing experiences and emotional eating might be dependent on genetic make-up., (Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)