Running head: THE EFFECT OF WATCHING FOOD-RELATED TELEVISION 1 The Effect of Watching Food-Related Television on Eating Behaviors and Cravings By:

This study proposes to examine whether eating behaviors and food cravings are altered while watching food-related television programs. More specifically, we examined whether educational food-related television (didactic, realistic portrayal of food) or entertainment foodrelated television (flashy, enticing portrayal of food) had any effect on the eating behaviors and food cravings of participants. 239 participants completed a 30-minute survey assessing their food-related television viewing habits and demographic information. We measured disordered eating behaviors by administering the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS; Gearhardt, Corbin, & Brownell, 2009). Our findings indicated that watching any genre of food-related television is correlated with eating food, the belief that food tastes better, and craving food. YFAS symptom count was correlated with watching educational food-related television but not entertainment food-related television. BMI was not correlated with watching either genre of food-related, and YFAS symptom count was only correlated with the belief that food tasted better while watching any genre of food-related television. It appears that food-related television has the potential to influence people’s eating behaviors and food cravings. This study is significant because it offers more insight about the stronghold that media sources, such as television shows, have on our eating habits, which is a main contributor to our nation’s obesity epidemic.