Dietary Motivation and Hedonic Hunger Predict Palatable Food Consumption: An Intensive Longitudinal Study of...

Understanding interactions between stable characteristics and fluctuating states underlying youth's food choices may inform methods for promoting more healthful food intake.

This study examined dietary motivation and hedonic hunger as interacting predictors of adolescents' consumption of palatable foods.

Intensive longitudinal data were collected from 50 adolescents (aged 13-18) over 20 days. Participants completed a measure of dietary motivation at baseline and reported on hedonic hunger and palatable food consumption via a smartphone app at the end of each day.

Results indicated that 66.7% of the variability in hedonic hunger was between-person (BP) and 33.3% was within-person (WP). BP hedonic hunger was positively associated with fatty food consumption (β = 0.28, p < .05), and WP hedonic hunger was positively associated with starchy food consumption (β = 0.38, p < .0001). Autonomous motivation was negatively associated with consumption of fast foods (β = -0.14, p < .05). Significant cross-level interactions were found: WP hedonic hunger and controlled motivation were positively associated with starchy food consumption, and WP hedonic hunger and autonomous motivation were negatively associated with fast food consumption.

Findings indicated that hedonic hunger has the potential to fluctuate, and conceptualization of the variable as both trait and state may be most appropriate. Adolescents with controlled dietary motivation may be vulnerable to the influence of hedonic hunger and prone to eating higher quantities of starchy foods. Adolescents with autonomous dietary motivation may be less vulnerable to hedonic hunger and less likely to consume fast food.