In Press
Finch, L. E., Cummings, J. R., Lee, S. C., Tomiyama, A. J. (in press). Pavlovian intervention to condition comforting effects of fruits. Psychosomatic Medicine.
In one sip: Since we want to help people reduce stress, eat less high-calorie food, and eat more fruit, we designed a novel intervention wherein we used classical conditioning (remember Pavlov and his dog?) to pair together relaxation and fruit intake for 7 days. We found that 7 days later, those who had experienced the intervention had less negative mood after fruit intake compared to control. However, the intervention did not cause differences in food intake.
Parnarouskis, L., Jouppi, R., Cummings, J. R., & Gearhardt, A. N. (in press). A randomized study of effects of obesity framing on weight stigma. Obesity.
In one sip: How do different messages about the cause of obesity impact how people stigmatize fat people? We did not find evidence that reading that obesity is caused by addictive foods, compulsive eating, or calorie imbalance led people to think about a fat person differently.
2021
Cummings, J. R., Wolfson, J. A., & Gearhardt, A. N. (2021). Health-promoting behaviors in the United States during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Appetite, 168, 105659. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2021.105659
In one sip: The potential negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on health-related behaviors have been well documented, but it is possible the pandemic has had some positive effects on these behaviors too. When we compared average levels of health-related behaviors from March 2020 with prior years, we did see that exercise had decreased at the population level; however, cooking frequency and fruit and vegetable intake increased! And for some individuals, their stress in response to the pandemic was associated with greater exercise, cooking frequency, and fruit and vegetable intake.
Cummings, J. R., Ackerman, J. M., Wolfson, J. A., & Gearhardt, A. N. (2021). COVID-19 stress and eating and drinking behaviors in the United States during the early stages of the pandemic. Appetite, 162, 105163. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2021.105163
In one sip: The coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic has created widespread stress, which may impact eating and drinking behaviors. We found that greater stress in response to the pandemic was associated with greater comfort eating, added sugars intake, drinking to cope, and drinking frequency. However, when we compared average levels of comfort eating from March 2020 with levels in February 2019, we did not see that this behavior had increased at the population level.
Cummings, J. R., Hoover, L. V., Turner, M. I., Glozier, K., Zhao, J., & Gearhardt, A. N. (2021). Extending expectancy theory to food intake: Effect of a simulated fast-food restaurant on highly and minimally processed food expectancies. Clinical Psychological Science. doi: 10.1177/21677026211004582
In one sip: Environments impact the emotions we think we will feel when we behave certain ways. For example, when we are in a bar, we are more likely to think that drinking alcohol will make us feel happy. In this randomized experiment, we found that being in a fast food restaurant caused young adults to be more likely to think that eating highly processed foods would make them feel happy. Those increased positive expectations led young adults to eat more chips and cookies and fewer grapes and carrots.
2020
Schiestl, E. T., Rios, J. M., Parnarouskis, L., Cummings, J. R., & Gearhardt, A. N. (2020). A narrative review of highly processed food addiction across the lifespan. Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 110152. doi: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2020.110152
In one sip: Although most people do not try substances like alcohol or marijuana until they are teenagers, even some infants eat highly processed foods. How might this early exposure impact the development of different eating behaviors? Here we review the existing literature and discuss important future directions for research on this topic.
Cummings, J. R. & Gearhardt, A. N. (2020). Prospective associations between parental substance use and youth highly processed food intake in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 211, 107965. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2020.107965
In one sip: We built upon our evidence that children might inherit risk for certain eating behaviors from families with substance use. Specifically, children who had been prenatally exposed to substances ate more highly processed foods (but not unprocessed foods) at ages 5, 9, and 15. These findings support theory that highly processed foods, but not unprocessed foods, are relevant to addictive processes.
Cummings, J. R., Joyner, M. A., & Gearhardt, A. N. (2020). Development and preliminary validation of the Anticipated Effects of Food Scale. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 34(2), 403-413. doi: 10.1037/adb0000544
In one sip: We developed a new questionnaire to assess food expectancies, or what emotions people anticipate experiencing while they are eating different foods. We found that anticipating positive emotions from eating highly processed food (e.g., ice cream) was linked with one's typical added sugar intake and addictive-like response to highly processed foods. However, one's typical added sugar intake and addictive-like response to highly processed foods were best explained by how much they anticipated negative emotions from eating minimally processed food (e.g., fruits, vegetables).
Cummings, J. R., Ray, L. A., Nooteboom, P. & Tomiyama, A. J. (2020). Acute effect of eating sweets on alcohol cravings in a sample with at-risk drinking. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 54(2), 132-138. doi: 10.1093/abm/kaz031
In one sip: Alcoholics Anonymous recommends that people eat sweets to allay the urge to drink. However, results from this randomized experiment failed to find that eating sweets reduced alcohol cravings compared to eating other food or just watching a video to distract oneself.
Cummings, J. R., Gearhardt, A. N., Ray, L. A., Choi, A. K., & Tomiyama, A. J. (2020). Experimental and observational studies on alcohol use and dietary intake: A systematic review. Obesity Reviews, 21(2), e12950. doi: 10.1111/obr.12950
In one sip: In this systematic review, we found that how alcohol use affects diet is not as simple as you might think. At low doses, alcohol has increased fat and protein intake. At high doses, however, alcohol has decreased refined carbohydrate intake.
Cummings, J. R., Lumeng, J. C., Miller, A. L., Hyde, L. W., Siada, R., & Gearhardt, A. N. (2020). Parental substance use and child reward-driven eating behaviors. Appetite, 144(1), 104486. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2019.104486
In one sip: In this study, we found further evidence that children might inherit risk for certain eating behaviors from families with substance use. We found children (~age 10) of mothers and fathers with nicotine dependence or with a greater number of alcoholic beverages consumed in the past year were more likely to be responsive to food cues and to get pleasure from eating food.
2019
Cummings, J. R., Gearhardt, A. N., Miller, A., Hyde, L. W., & Lumeng, J. C. (2019). Maternal nicotine dependence is associated with longitudinal increases in child obesogenic eating behaviors. Pediatric Obesity, 14(11), e12541. doi: 10.1111/ijpo.12541
In one sip: It is fairly well known that people inherit risk for substance use from their families. Might children inherit risk for certain eating behaviors from families with substance use? Specifically, children of mothers with nicotine dependence were more likely to increase in food responsiveness and emotional eating behaviors from age 4 to age 10.
Cummings, J. R., Mamtora, T., & Tomiyama, A. J. (2019). Non-food rewards and highly processed food intake in everyday life. Appetite, 142(11), 104355. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2019.104355
In one sip: Some people speculate that engaging in more pleasurable activities might reduce someone's need to eat processed foods high in sugar and fat. However, results from this study suggest this might backfire in some contexts because young adults tend to eat more processed foods after experiencing pleasure.
Finch, L. E., Cummings, J. R., & Tomiyama, A. J. (2019). Cookie or clementine? Psychophysiological stress reactivity and recovery after eating healthy and unhealthy comfort foods. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 107(9), 26-36. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019.04.022
In one sip: When you are stressed, you could eat chocolate or pizza but you also could eat strawberries or carrots. In this randomized experiment, we found that young women physiologically and psychologically recovered from stress in a similar pattern regardless of what comfort foods they ate.
Cummings, J. R. & Tomiyama, A. J. (2019). Food loves company: Effects of risky eating with friends on interpersonal closeness. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2018.07.006
In one sip: Can you bond with your friends over decadent food? Results from this randomized experiment indicated that, when young adults thought they were eating a high- versus low-calorie milkshake with their friend, this caused them to feel closer with that friend. This was especially true for dieters, the very people who try to avoid eating high-calorie food.
2018
Cummings, J. R., Tomiyama, A. J., & Ray, L. A. (2018). Does the neuroimmune modulator ibudilast alter food craving? Results in a sample with alcohol use disorder. Journal of Addiction Medicine. doi: 10.1097/ADM.0000000000000416
In one sip: When those with alcohol use disorder receive treatment, how might this affect their eating behavior? This study was a secondary data analysis of a randomized controlled trial of the effect of the medication ibudilast on alcohol cravings. We found that this medication did not suppress food cravings but increased high-fat/high-sugar food cravings when individuals were stressed.
Cummings, J. R. & Tomiyama, A. J. (2018). Bidirectional associations between eating and alcohol use during restricted intake. Current Addiction Reports, 5(2), 243-250. doi: 10.1007/s40429-018-0180-4
In one sip: If someone tries to quit drinking, will they eat more food? Conversely, if someone diets, will they drink more alcohol? We review the preliminary animal and human research that supports the idea that restricting intake of alcohol or certain foods may inadvertently increase intake of the other substance in some contexts. We also discuss critical areas for future research.
Cummings, J. R., Mason, A. E., Puterman, E., & Tomiyama, A. J. (2018). Comfort eating and all-cause mortality in the U.S. Health and Retirement Study. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 25(4), 473-478. doi: 10.1007/s12529-017-9706-8
In one sip: Comfort eating may actually buffer psychological and physiological stress responses but expand waist size. How then might comfort eating predict death? We found that older adults who ate more high-calorie foods had greater odds of dying but, irrespective of this, those who generally ate more in response to stress had less odds of dying.
2017
Cummings, J. R., Ray, L. A., & Tomiyama, A. J. (2017). Food-alcohol competition: As young girls eat more food, do they drink less alcohol? Journal of Health Psychology, 22(5), 674-683. doi: 10.1177/1359105315611955
In one sip: Common sense might tell you that food and alcohol are two substances that go hand in hand. However, there is a sizable literature suggesting that adults with higher body mass drink less alcohol. We decided to investigate eating behavior at a time when people start to drink alcohol: late adolescence. Consistent with the adult findings, we found that adolescent girls who ate more fast food and sugar and fat were less likely to drink alcohol as they entered young adulthood.
2015
Tomiyama, A. J., Finch, L. E., & Cummings, J. R. (2015). Did that brownie do its job? Stress, eating, and the biobehavioral effects of comfort food. In R. A. Scott & S. M. Kosslyn (Eds.), Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Hoboken, NJ, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. doi:10.1002/9781118900772.etrds0324
In one sip: Many people eat high-fat, high-sugar, and high-calorie foods when feeling negative emotions like sadness, loneliness, or distress. We reviewed the scientific literature on "comfort eating" and pointed out critical areas for future research.
Reich, R. R., Cummings, J. R., Greenbaum, P. E., Moltisanti, A. J., & Goldman, M. S. (2015). The temporal “pulse” of drinking: Tracking five years of binge drinking in emerging adults. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 124(3), 635-647. doi:10.1037/abn0000061
In one sip: We examined how frequently and intensely young adults binge drank across five years. We identified that "maturing out" of drinking reflects a decrease in the frequency of binge drinking but not the amount drank at the drinking occasion. And the largest predictors of binge drinking included if it was the weekend or a holiday!
2014
Bornovalova, M. A., Cummings, J. R., Hunt, E., Blazei, R., Malone, S., & Iacono, W. G. (2014). Understanding the relative contributions of direct environmental effects and passive genotype-environment correlations in the association between familial risk factors and child disruptive behavior disorders. Psychological Medicine, 44(4), 831–844. doi:10.1017/S0033291713001086
In one sip: Do children engage in maladaptive behaviors (e.g., illegally drink alcohol) because of bad parenting or because they genetically inherit a tendency to behave badly from their parents? We studied adopted (no shared genes with parents) and biological (shared genes with parents) children. When parents engaged in maladaptive behaviors, biological but not adopted children engaged in maladaptive behaviors too, suggesting these behaviors were genetically inherited.
Rojas, E.C., Cummings, J.R., Bornovalova, M.A., Hopwood, C.J., Racine, S.E., Keel, P.K., Sisk, C.L., Neale, M., Boker, S., Burt, A.S., Klump, K.L. (2014). A further validation of the Minnesota Borderline Personality Disorder Scale. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 5(2), 146–53. doi:10.1037/per0000036
In one sip: We validated a measure of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) symptoms derived from the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire. How? We studied twins! Identical twins (who share 100% genes) had more similar responses than fraternal twins (who share 50% genes), which makes sense because prior work suggests genetics play a key role in the development of BPD. BPD symptoms were also linked with maladaptive behaviors including substance abuse.
2013
Cummings, J. R., Bornovalova, M. A., Ojanen, T., Hunt, E., MacPherson, L., & Lejuez, C. (2013). Time doesn’t change everything: The longitudinal course of distress tolerance and its relationship with externalizing and internalizing symptoms during early adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 41(5), 735–48. doi:10.1007/s10802-012-9704-x
In one sip: We examined whether adolescents' ability to tolerate distress changed across four years but found that it did not. We also found that an adolescent's ability to tolerate distress predicted whether they engaged in rule breaking (e.g., illegally drank alcohol) and other maladaptive behaviors.
