PhD conferral Mr Robbie Schepers, MSc.

Keywords: emotional eating, 5-HTTLPR, worrying

“Donut worry; the role of 5-HTTLPR genotype and ruminative thinking in emotional eating behaviour”

In times of stress people often crave fatty or sweet food that is high in calories. This emotional eating behaviour could potentially lead to excess weight or obesity. Despite many studies it is still mostly unclear why many people have this unhealthy eating pattern. This dissertation shows that a combination of biological and cognitive stress susceptibilities, such as the S-allele of the 5-HTTLPR genotype and a strong tendency to ruminate, increases the risk of developing an emotional eating pattern.