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We all know that weight loss and weight gain hinges on energy balance (calories in vs calories out) by now, right? At least, we should all know that.
The thing is, that doesn't tell us a lot about *why* people eat more or less food, the subsconscious drivers that can influence energy intake. Let's focus on one of those, and discuss food variety with a concept called sensory specific satiety.
Sensory specific satiety is a decline in pleasure after eating a specific food. This is one reason why food variety can encourage people to eat more food, because you can bypass the taste fatigue associated with a single flavour.
For example, pick your favourite food, how much of it would you eat in one go?
Then, pick your three favourite foods. How much of them would you eat in total if they were all sitting in front of you?
When you have a combination of foods, you tend to eat more than if you had just one food in isolation. There are evolutionary theories behind this, 1) it helps ensure people eat a diverse range of food rather than relying on just one 2) it encourages people to eat more food when it is available, which would potentially help survival if you don't know when you next meal is coming.
You can use this to your advantage, for example if you are dieting it might be a good idea to limit food variety at your meals. Alternatively, if you want to eat more food you can increase variety, like people with low appetite (which has been seen in research in elderly people who often eat significantly less food and risk malnourishment) or even with specific foods, like trying to eat more vegetables (which has also been seen in research with children, who often don't like the taste).
References:
- Sensory Specific Satiety in Man
- Variety enhances food intake in humans: Role of sensory-specific satiety
- Variety in a meal enhances food intake in man
- Serving a variety of vegetables and fruit as a snack increased intake in preschool children
- Optimizing sensory quality and variety: An effective strategy for increasing meal enjoyment and food intake in older nursing home residents
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