Shreya Verma, Meetu Khosla and Palak Sharma
University of Delhi, Delhi
With the sudden entrance of COVID-19 Pandemic, people were forced to stay indoors.
This led to their eating habits being altered and their food choices deteriorated. As the
lockdown period increased, people often used eating food as a coping mechanism to
deal with stress, further leading to faulty eating patterns. The aim of the study was to
understand how eating patterns of young adults affect their cognitive processes and
mood. A total of 253 participants (118- Males and 135- Females; 18-24 years old)
completed the 18-item Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ-r18) and a 19-item
qualitative questionnaire, pertaining to the influence of food on Self, Cognition, Emotional,
and Physical aspects. Correlation between the 3 aspects of TFEQ showed significant
positive correlation. Emotional Eating was positively correlated with both, Uncontrolled
Eating and Cognitive Restraint. Moreover, based on the qualitative questionnaire, it was
found that eating habits affected not only one’s cognition and emotions, but also had
an impact on their self and physical image. The questionnaire also included questions
about comfort foods which conclude the different types of foods one likes to eat under
different circumstances. Majority people felt happy, calm, relaxed, less anxious or
stressed, and experienced an improved and uplifted mood that lasted for about a day.
A minority number of respondents reported feeling guilty after eating their favorite food.
Implications of faulty eating patterns on cognition and mood are discussed, emphasizing
the need to develop educational intervention programs promoting healthy food choices
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