Eating behavior results from the intricated interplay between homeostatic and several cognitive processes, including reward-driven (hedonic) factors and executive functions. Among the latter, inhibitory control seems to be particularly related to dysregulated eating behaviors. Inhibitory control refers to the late-stage ability to stop unwanted thoughts and actions. Longer stopping latencies and more frequent stopping errors have been associated with overweight and overeating. In contrast to this, enhanced inhibitory control may be present in patients with anorexia nervosa of the restrictive type. It is, however, not clear how inhibitory control unfolds in response to food stimuli in particular. Moreover, a methodological challenge is to quantify successful stopping to specific stimuli directly. To address these factors, a virtual reality paradigm was developed and tested empirically. Across a series of experimental studies, the immersive virtual reality paradigm was used to present three-dimensional food and control stimuli. Participants performed a stop-signal task that required them to stop an initiated reach movement, and their reach movements were continuously recorded to directly measure stopped behavior by movement trajectory indices. We investigated construct validity in a key-press stop-signal task, predictive validity in a bogus taste test, stimulus effects in participants with chocolate craving and in adolescents with anorexia nervosa. Theoretical implications that incorporate motivated behavior towards food and clinically relevant alterations of inhibitory control in a neurocognitive model of inhibitory control are discussed.