This study was part of a larger study which examined the association of such factors as mood, presence of physical symptoms, consumption of drugs and alcohol, exercise, weight-to-height ratio, number of hours of sleep, and social context on the type and amount of foods eaten at three meals each day for a sample of normal adults. This study focused primarily on the variability of subjects' reports of their physical and emotional well-being for each meal and the association of these variables with subjects' self-reported eating habits. Subjects (N=28), ranging in age from 20-72 years, responded to advertisements and flyers for the study. Subjects first completed an interview during which procedures were explained and subjects completed a demographic and health/diet history questionnaire. For the next 28 days, subjects recorded on a specially prepared, fixed-response questionnaire, everything they ate at breakfast, lunch, and dinner within an hour after the meal. At the same time subjects also completed two statements assessing their general physical and emotional state. Subjects also indicated any of 12 physical symptoms, such as nausea or headache, they might have experienced before the meal. At the end of the day subjects recorded all snack foods they had eaten and completed summary statements about their impressions of the day. Results failed to show any very strong relationships among the various reports of physical symptoms and moods and subjects' assessment of how much they ate during each day. Subjects' reports of their physical symptoms and feelings were correlated with the variability in the amount of food they reported eating as well as their weight-to-height ratio. This suggests that variables that might be expected to influence patterns of eating may have their effects not on actual amount eaten, but rather on how much the meal pattern changes over time. Future analyses will focus on particular patterns of variability in the eating patterns of heavier individuals as well as the influence of physical symptoms and mood on the choice and intake of specific foods during each meal. (ABL)