What Drives Your Eating?
Feelings, temptation or self-control
Hunger is only one of the reasons people eat. Dutch researchers in the 1980s described three others that vary from person to person: eating in response to feelings, eating because food is there and looks good, and holding back on purpose. Most people have one that dominates. This test shows which, without judging it - these are ordinary eating styles, not problems to diagnose.
Before you start There are no right answers. Pick what is usually true for you, not what sounds best.
Answer about how you usually eat, not about a holiday, a diet you happen to be on, or an unusually hard week.
What it measures
The three scales of the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire: emotional eating, external eating (eating prompted by the sight, smell and presence of food) and restrained eating (deliberately eating less than you would like). It describes everyday habits in the normal range; it does not measure diet quality, weight or health.
Based on: Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (van Strien, Frijters, Bergers & Defares, 1986)
Possible results
Emotional eating
How much your eating follows your mood rather than your hunger.
External eating
How much the sight, smell and presence of food decide how much you eat.
Restrained eating
How much you deliberately hold back on food, usually with your weight in mind.
Common questions
Is emotional eating a sign of an eating disorder?
Not by itself. Eating for comfort now and then is very common and part of ordinary life. Eating disorders involve much more - serious distress, loss of control, or restriction that harms health - and they need a professional assessment, not a quiz. If you are worried about your eating, your family doctor is a good first step.
Is restrained eating the same as eating healthily?
No. Restraint measures how much you deliberately hold back, usually for weight reasons; it says nothing about the quality of what you eat. Research also suggests that rigid rules tend to backfire, while a flexible approach - paying attention without strict bans - is easier to sustain over time.
Why do I eat more when food is right in front of me?
Because humans evolved to eat when food is available, and cues like sight, smell, portion size and other people eating reliably increase how much we eat. It is one of the most consistent findings in eating research. Changing your surroundings - smaller plates, snacks out of sight - usually works better than relying on willpower.
Sources
- van Strien, T., Frijters, J. E. R., Bergers, G. P. A., & Defares, P. B. (1986). The Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) for assessment of restrained, emotional, and external eating behavior. International Journal of Eating Disorders. doi:10.1002/1098-108X(198602)5:2<295::AID-EAT2260050209>3.0.CO;2-T
- Evers, C., de Ridder, D. T. D., & Adriaanse, M. A. (2009). Assessing yourself as an emotional eater: Mission impossible?. Health Psychology. doi:10.1037/a0016700
- Bongers, P., & Jansen, A. (2016). Emotional eating is not what you think it is and emotional eating scales do not measure what you think they measure. Frontiers in Psychology. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01932
An honest note The questions are Quinthea's own wording adapted from the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire, so scores are not comparable with its published norms. Lab studies suggest that people who report emotional eating do not always eat more when upset. This describes everyday eating habits; it is not a screen for eating disorders. If food, weight or body shape dominate your thoughts, or eating feels out of your control, please talk to a doctor or an eating-disorder support service.
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