From the need to the knowledge. Feeding emotions and thoughts: Assessing emotion regulation strategies in food tribes

Some people choose to follow a certain dietary habit because they are guided by strong beliefs, but also to pursue a healthy lifestyle. Food tribes are defined as social groups sharing common values and beliefs that underlie food and lifestyle choices. The current study aimed to investigate potential differences in emotion regulation between specific food tribes, and when comparing food tribes to people who conversely do not follow a dietary habit. Specifically, we examined the presence of rumination, psychological inflexibility, and emotional contagion as components of emotion dysregulation. A Google form was developed to obtain all the information needed to respond to our research questions and goals, and investigate the following food groups: Veganism, Fruitarianism, Raw Food Diet, Paleodiet, Blood Type group, Breatharianism, Macrobiotic Diet, and Other. The final sample consisted of 378 healthy subjects (117 males, 258 females, 3 other) ranging in age from 18 to 70 years. The first part of Google form consisted of general questions about the participant's dietary habits while the second part included specific questionnaires assessing the psychological constructs we investigated. Vegan people were less conditioned by others in their food choices when compared to the other food tribes. The Paleodiet group associated its food choice with health reasons as well as the Blood Type group. Differences were found in the presence of cognitive inflexibility and rumination, reflective thinking, emotional dysregulation, emotional contagion and also in the representation of their real and ideal (food) communities. Clinical implications are discussed.