Relation between food cravings and mood: Characteristics of rice craving

The aims of this study were to see whether the most frequently experienced food craving of Japanese males was for rice, and to investigate the relationship between mood and food cravings, especially for rice. Undergraduate students completed a questionnaire of several measures, including gauging food craving frequency, the Japanese version of DEBQ, and the Japanese version of POMS. The highest item on the mean scores of craving frequency was rice, for both males and females. For both males and females, correlation analysis showed no significant correlation between mood and craving frequency for rice. For females, there was significantly positive correlation between negative mood and craving frequency for foods other than rice. However, for males, there was significantly positive correlation between positive mood and craving frequency for foods other than rice. These findings suggested the possibility that rice craving may be characteristic of Japanese people and indicated food cravings are associated with mood, though in different ways for females and males.