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A narrative review of the construct of hedonic hunger and its measurement by the Power of Food Scale
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

A narrative review of the construct of hedonic hunger and its measurement by the Power of Food Scale

H. M. Espel‐Huynh, A. F. Muratore and M. R. Lowe
Obesity science & practice, v 4(3), pp 238-249
Jun 2018
PMID: 29951214
url
https://doi.org/10.1002/osp4.161View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)CC BY-NC-ND V4.0 Open

Abstract

Food reward hedonic hunger loss‐of‐control eating Power of Food
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.

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88 citations in Scopus

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Web of Science research areas
Endocrinology & Metabolism
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