A study was conducted were 1 group of participants were given a large plate of pasta and told to eat until they were full. When the participants had finished they were given a second plate of pasta and again told to eat until they were full. The second group of participants were given a bowl of pasta and the same as group one told to eat until they were full. When they had finished they were given a bowl of ice cream. The researchers discovered that group two were able to eat three times as much ice cream than group one on their second bowl of pasta. They discovered that group two ‘made room’ for desert.

 

Now you may be thinking that maybe those people just liked ice cream more than pasta, however, there is a more scientific explanation to this: sensory specific satiety. Which is the change in your interest towards a food. The researchers asked the participants to rate how much they liked pasta before and after the experiment and discovered that how much people liked pasta decreased by the end of the experiment.

 

The purpose of sensory specific satiety is to keep us healthy as we all know that in order to stay healthy you must eat a balanced diet and sensory specific satiety ensures this. Sensory specific satiety is the reason why most of us end up eating a bit too much at Christmas dinner and even when we’re stuffed the answer to a mince pie is usually ‘yes please’. This is because Christmas dinner usually consists of a wide variety of foods and that keeps us interested.

 

So now when you reach for just another little something you know why.

 

Amy Turner