Open AccessA narrative review of the construct of hedonic hunger and its measurement by the Power of Food Scale
Author(s) -
EspelHuynh H. M.,
Muratore A. F.,
Lowe M. R.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
obesity science and practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.654
H-Index - 14
ISSN - 2055-2238
DOI - 10.1002/osp4.161
Subject(s) - pleasure , construct (python library) , context (archaeology) , scale (ratio) , predictive power , appetite , food choice , medicine , consumption (sociology) , narrative , developmental psychology , social psychology , psychology , computer science , paleontology , social science , philosophy , linguistics , physics , epistemology , pathology , quantum mechanics , neuroscience , sociology , biology , programming language
Summary Introduction The term ‘hedonic hunger’ refers to one's preoccupation with and desire to consume foods for the purposes of pleasure and in the absence of physical hunger. The Power of Food Scale (PFS) was developed as a quantitative measure of this construct in 2009. Since then, over 50 published studies have used the PFS to predict appetite‐related outcomes including neural, cognitive, behavioural, anthropometric and clinical measures. Objective This narrative review evaluates how closely the PFS captures the construct it was originally presumed to assess and to more clearly define hedonic hunger itself. Methods The measure's relationship to four domains is reviewed and summarized: motivation to consume palatable foods; level of actual consumption of such foods; body mass; and subjective loss‐of‐control over one's eating behaviour. Findings are synthesized to generate a more accurate understanding of what the PFS measures and how it may relate to the broader definition of hedonic hunger. Results Results suggest that the PFS is closely related to motivation to consume palatable foods and, in extreme cases, occurrence of loss‐of‐control eating episodes. PFS scores are not consistently predictive of amount of food consumed or body mass. Conclusions Implications of these findings are discussed in the context of behavioural health, and avenues for further inquiry are identified.