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Study suggests positive mood can help women keep to a diet

Australian researchers found that emotions drive dieters' snack choices, with emotional awareness helping people avoid unhealthy options. More than 150 women completed a seven-day online snack diary for the study published in Food Quality and Preference.
The research team tested whether negative moods and emotion-regulation difficulties push people toward unhealthy foods, expecting regulation skills would provide protection against emotional eating.
Dieters were especially vulnerable, eating almost twice as many unhealthy snacks like chocolate, pastries or chips when feeling negative emotions. Happier moments led participants to eat more snacks of all types.
Dr. Isaac Williams suggests brief mindfulness exercises, slowing down before eating, and checking in with feelings as practical tools for dieters aiming to maintain healthier eating habits.
Given that emotion-regulation strategies like reappraisal and suppression offered limited protection, researchers say future interventions may need to shift focus toward alternative approaches supporting dieters' momentary decisions.

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