Is Disordered Eating Changing Your Brain?

Unhealthy eating behaviors impact mental health and brain development, guiding personalized intervention designs.

More than 50% of 23-year-olds in Europe display restrictive, emotional, or uncontrolled eating habits. The study indicates that structural brain differences may play a role in the formation of these behaviors ().

The study, published in Nature Mental Health, investigates the links between genetics, brain structure and disordered eating behaviours in young people. Researchers found that the process of ‘brain maturation’, whereby the volume and thickness of the cortex (the outer layer of the brain) decreases during adolescence, is a factor in whether teenagers develop restrictive or emotional/uncontrolled eating behaviours in young adulthood.

Eating Disorders
Eating disorders involve extreme attitudes and behaviors towards food and weight. It has the highest suicidal mortality rate than other mental illnesses.

‘Young adults with #restrictive or #emotionaleating patterns may have experienced more anxiety, depression, and behavioral problems as teens. #eatingdisorders’

What are Restrictive Eating Behaviors

Restrictive eating behaviors, such as dieting and purging, involve the deliberate limitation of food intake to control body weight and shape. In contrast, emotional or uncontrolled eating behaviors, like binge-eating, are characterised by episodes of consuming food in response to negative emotions or compulsive urges.

The researchers analysed data from 996 adolescents in the IMAGEN longitudinal cohort in England, Ireland, France and Germany. Participants provided genetic data, completed questionnaires about their wellbeing and eating behaviours, and had an MRI scan at ages 14 and 23. At age 23, participants were categorised into three types of eating behaviours: healthy eaters (42 percent), restrictive eaters (33 percent) and emotional or uncontrolled eaters (25 percent).

The study found that the three groups had different patterns of mental health and behaviour over time.

Helping Patients With Emotional Eating: A Primary Care Approach
Primary care providers can effectively manage emotional eating by leveraging their long-term patient relationships, using screening tools, and implementing psychological therapies.

Internalising problems significantly increased with age between 14 to 23 among unhealthy eaters. Although externalising problems decreased with age in all groups, overall levels were higher among those with emotional or uncontrolled eating.

Restrictive eaters dieted more throughout adolescence compared to healthy eaters. Emotional/uncontrolled eaters increased their dieting between ages 14 to 16 and binge eating between ages 14 to 19, compared to healthy eaters. Unhealthy eating behaviours were linked with obesity and increased genetic risk for high BMI.

Test Your Knowledge on Eating Disorders
Eating disorders are more of a psychiatric disorder that cause severe disturbances to a person's eating behaviors due to obsessions with food, body weight, and ...

Researchers analysed Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data at 14 and 23 years to investigate brain maturation over time and how much the volume and thickness of the cortex had decreased. Results indicated that brain maturation was delayed and less pronounced in unhealthy eaters. It played a role in the link between mental health problems at age 14 and development of unhealthy eating behaviours at age 23 and this connection was unrelated to BMI. Reduced brain maturation also helped explain how genetic risk for high BMI influences unhealthy eating behaviours at age 23.

In particular, reduced maturation of the cerebellum – a brain region that controls appetite – helped explain the link between genetic risk for high BMI and restrictive eating behaviours at age 23.

Lifestyle and Healthy Eating Habits
Healthy eating is all about making positive choices, focusing on foods which provide necessary nutrients to maintain good health, prevent deficiency diseases and chronic diet-related disorders.

The research, which received funding from the Medical Research Foundation, Medical Research Council and National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, highlights how brain maturation, genetics and mental health difficulties interact to contribute to eating disorder symptoms.

Xinyang Yu, PhD student at King’s IoPPN and first author of the study, said: “Our findings reveal how delayed brain maturation during adolescence links genetics, mental health challenges and disordered eating behaviors in young adulthood, emphasising the critical role of brain development in shaping eating habits."

Professor Sylvane Desrivières, Professor of Biological Psychiatry at King’s IoPPN and senior author of the study, said: “Our findings highlight the potential benefits of improved education aimed at addressing unhealthy dietary habits and maladaptive coping strategies. This could play a crucial role in preventing eating disorders and supporting overall brain health.”

Reference:

Relationships of eating behaviors with psychopathology, brain maturation and genetic risk for obesity in an adolescent cohort study - (https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-024-00354-7)

Source-Eurekalert