Relief In A Bite? Investigating The Real-Time Interaction Between Sweet Food And Stress Recall

Relief In A Bite? Investigating The Real-Time Interaction Between Sweet Food And Stress Recall | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Relief In A Bite? Investigating The Real-Time Interaction Between Sweet Food And Stress Recall Nils Kohn, Anne-Roos Ruiter, Silvia Papalini This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7417981/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Transitory relief, defined as the positive emotional experience during attenuation of aversive states, has been proposed as a driver of emotional overeating, yet its physiological signature remains unclear. This pilot study examined whether food-induced relief from stress is associated with specific heart rate (HR) patterns. Fifty healthy adults were asked to recall a mildly distressing memory, then consumed a sweet snack while holding that memory in mind. HR was recorded continuously via wearable sensors, and subjective relief was assessed retrospectively. As expected, stress recall increased both HR and self-reported stress. Consuming the snack reduced HR during and shortly after tasting, and again near the condition’s end. Interestingly, participants reporting greater relief showed a transient HR increase after tasting, followed by stronger autonomic recovery, suggesting a biphasic pattern in which food initially heightens arousal before promoting relaxation. Relief, but not reduction in memory unpleasantness, correlated with emotional eating tendencies, pointing to relief rather than affect reduction as a potential behavioural reinforcer. Given the public setting, lack of a control condition, and reliance on brief self-reports, results should be interpreted with caution. Nevertheless, this study provides preliminary support for a physiological signature of food-induced relief during stress, warranting further investigation into its potential contribution to emotional overeating. Psychology reward relief emotional eating Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7417981","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":503158842,"identity":"8dd69b97-372d-4f3c-8948-f10f6da33549","order_by":0,"name":"Nils Kohn","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Department of Medical Neuroscience, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Nils","middleName":"","lastName":"Kohn","suffix":""},{"id":503158843,"identity":"fe2e7e4c-a499-4551-a96e-08939966f43e","order_by":1,"name":"Anne-Roos Ruiter","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Department of Medical Neuroscience, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Anne-Roos","middleName":"","lastName":"Ruiter","suffix":""},{"id":503158844,"identity":"9ffd1bee-6f71-4c1a-9a88-1d7352a1af6d","order_by":2,"name":"Silvia Papalini","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"","institution":"Department of Medical Neuroscience, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Silvia","middleName":"","lastName":"Papalini","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-08-20 13:34:17","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":true,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":true,"humanSubjectConsent":true,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":true,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7417981/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7417981/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":89607242,"identity":"bc98ad98-69fe-423d-a85d-b0ab177b7d5c","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-08-21 20:42:41","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":309974,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"citylab8.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7417981/v1_covered_308fc1ec-6d48-42f7-b7c5-79e502ea0aff.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eRelief In A Bite? Investigating The Real-Time Interaction Between Sweet Food And Stress Recall\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"reward, relief, emotional eating","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7417981/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7417981/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eTransitory relief, defined as the positive emotional experience during attenuation of aversive states, has been proposed as a driver of emotional overeating, yet its physiological signature remains unclear. This pilot study examined whether food-induced relief from stress is associated with specific heart rate (HR) patterns. Fifty healthy adults were asked to recall a mildly distressing memory, then consumed a sweet snack while holding that memory in mind. HR was recorded continuously via wearable sensors, and subjective relief was assessed retrospectively. As expected, stress recall increased both HR and self-reported stress. Consuming the snack reduced HR during and shortly after tasting, and again near the condition’s end. Interestingly, participants reporting greater relief showed a transient HR increase after tasting, followed by stronger autonomic recovery, suggesting a biphasic pattern in which food initially heightens arousal before promoting relaxation. Relief, but not reduction in memory unpleasantness, correlated with emotional eating tendencies, pointing to relief rather than affect reduction as a potential behavioural reinforcer. Given the public setting, lack of a control condition, and reliance on brief self-reports, results should be interpreted with caution. Nevertheless, this study provides preliminary support for a physiological signature of food-induced relief during stress, warranting further investigation into its potential contribution to emotional overeating.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Relief In A Bite? Investigating The Real-Time Interaction Between Sweet Food And Stress Recall","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-08-21 09:27:59","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7417981/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"ccac514a-2134-4a68-b8d8-31228c4f3471","owner":[],"postedDate":"August 21st, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":53453299,"name":"Psychology"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-08-21T20:35:18+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-08-21 09:27:59","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7417981","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7417981","identity":"rs-7417981","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}