Running head: THE EFFECTS OF RESTRAINT AND GENDER 1 The Effects of Restraint and Gender on Frequency of Consumption of High-Glycemic Load and High-Fat Foods

Nutritional characteristics, like fat and carbohydrates, may influence how frequently individuals consume various foods. Further, food consumption may vary by gender or by whether an individual exhibits restrained eating. Men and women may prefer different foods, and high dietary restraint may increase avoidance of foods that are believed to cause weight gain like foods high in fat and rapidly absorbed refined carbohydrates (indicated by glycemic load [GL]). This study analyzed the influence of individual characteristics on reported consumption of foods with varying nutrition. Participants (n = 120) were asked how frequently they consumed 35 foods with different nutritional compositions, and completed the EDE-Q. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to assess the impact of fat and GL on reported consumption, and how restraint and gender altered these associations. Fat and GL both emerged as large, negative predictors, meaning that as fat or GL increased in a food, reported consumption decreased. Gender was a large predictor of consumption of high-fat foods, that is, males indicated consuming high-fat foods more frequently than females. Restraint was a moderate, negative predictor of consumption of high-GL foods, that is, as individuals scored higher on the restraint scale, their reported consumption of high-GL foods decreased. An increased societal pressure on women to be thin may explain the gender difference found in this study. Restrained eaters may be particularly susceptible to messages in the environment encouraging or discouraging consumption of foods with certain nutritional profiles. More research is needed to explore restrained eaters’ reaction to environmental food messages.