Forbidden Food Survey: measure of bulimic's anticipated emotional reactions to specific foods

Abstract

The Forbidden Food Survey is an instrument that was designed for use with eating disordered individuals. The first experiment in this study includes a description of the Forbidden Food Survey and the reliability and internal consistency of its scales. The second investigation examined the discriminant validity of the Forbidden Food Survey by comparing the responses of three groups: bulimic binge-purgers, bulimic binge-eaters, and normals. The Forbidden Food Survey was found to differentiate the two bulimic groups on two scales, high caloric foods, medium calorie foods, and milk. As predicted from the anxiety model of bulimia, binge-purgers consistently reported stronger negative emotional responses to these foods than did the other groups. In the third experiment, bulimic binge-purgers were compared on Forbidden Food Survey responses to obese and normal subjects. Again, binge purgers were found to respond with stronger negative responses than obese and normals. These studies support the reliability and discriminant validity of the Forbidden Food Survey with eating disordered individuals.