Does a beautiful environment make food better - The effect of environmental aesthetics on food perception and eating intention.

Generally, people prefer to dine in beautiful environments. Previous studies have reported that environmental factors affect an individual's perception of food; however, little is known about the effect of environmental aesthetics on food perception. In Experiment 1, we used photographs of restaurant (1a) or non-restaurant (1b) environments with high or low aesthetic value, paired with images of foods, and participants were asked to rate the visual, olfactory, and gustatory aesthetic value of the food. Results showed significantly higher ratings for food perception in all three sensory modalities in the high aesthetic value environment, together with positive emotion and the desire to eat, compared with the low aesthetic environment. Experiment 2 extended the study to two real-world environments (one high and one low aesthetic value) and actual food consumption. The results also found higher aesthetic ratings in the olfactory and gustatory systems and greater desire to eat again in an environment with high aesthetic value than in an environment with low aesthetic value. This research also explored the mediating role of emotion in the relationship between environmental aesthetics and food perception and found a significant mediating relationship. In conclusion, environmental aesthetics play an important role in food perception, and these findings provide insights into increasing positive food perception in daily life.

Chemotherapy-induced taste and smell changes influence food perception in cancer patients.

PURPOSE: Chemotherapy-induced taste and smell alterations may have a negative impact on the quality of life and nutritional status. A prominent issue when dealing with taste and smell alterations and their consequences on food behavior and well-being lies in the variation arising from individual differences in chemosensory perceptions. The main aim of this study was to examine the effect of individuals' variation in the severity of taste and smell alterations relative to the stage of chemotherapy on self-reported food behavior and food perception. METHODS: Eighty-nine cancer patients completed a questionnaire subdivided into two parts: a chemosensory part that allowed classification of patients in three groups ("no alterations," "moderate alterations," and "severe alterations") and a food behavior part. RESULTS: The results highlighted a negative impact of chemosensory alterations on food perception. Compared with patients without taste and smell alterations, patients with severe chemosensory alterations reported significantly more frequent food perception problems, including modification of the perceived taste of food, finding bad taste in all food, and being unable to perceive food taste. Whereas 72% of patients with severe alterations were in late stage, only 37% of patients were in late stage in the no alterations group, indicating an effect of the treatment stage on taste and smell alterations. CONCLUSION: Our results underlie the importance of providing specific attention to the severity of chemotherapy-induced taste and smell alterations and considering the individual differences among patients for a better nutritional management.

A qualitative study about college students' attitudes, knowledge and perceptions regarding sugar intake.

Excessive sugar intake has been associated with multiple health conditions (e.g., higher risk for non-communicable diseases). Hence, health organizations have issued guidelines defining the maximum daily intake of free or added sugars. However, data from several countries suggests that these guidelines are rarely met, particularly by young adults. For example, almost half of Portuguese adolescents and young adults exceed the recommended sugar intake. In this work, we aim to further explore college students' attitudes, knowledge, and perceptions about sugar intake, as well as about sugar intake guidelines. A thematic analysis on data from five focus groups (N = 40) indicated that participants reported difficulty in the comprehension of added/free sugars definition and sugar intake recommendations. Overall, attitudes toward sugar were ambivalent. Sugar was simultaneously perceived as pleasurable and needed, but also as addictive and harmful. Although aware of the potential negative health outcomes associated with excessive sugar intake, most participants did not perceive being at risk due to their youth, exercise habits, or type of diet. The few concerns expressed were mostly associated with the negative impact of high sugar intake on body image (e.g., weight gain). The main barriers to reducing sugar intake identified were environmental (e.g., time restrictions, food available at the university). Still, participants could identify several individual strategies to effectively regulate sugar intake. By identifying knowledge gaps and sources of bias related to sugar consumption, our findings are useful to inform future interventions aiming to address the problem of high sugar intake among university students.

Hungry for colours? Attentional bias for food crucially depends on perceptual information.

Attentional bias has been consistently investigated with both threatening and rewarding stimuli, such as food. Several studies demonstrated the presence of an attentional bias for high-calorie food cues compared to neutral (non-food) cues. Authors have interpreted this effect in the context of top-down processes (e.g. the food draws attention thanks to the experience we have with it). The aim of the present study is to test whether perceptual features (bottom-up processes) can modulate the attentional bias effect of food stimuli. Using a dot-probe task, we investigated the relevance of colours in the occurrence of the attentional bias. We compared two different categories of naturalistic food images (high-calorie versus low-calorie) both coloured (Exp. 1) and greyscale (Exp. 2). While we found the occurrence of the attentional bias with high-calorie food coloured images, we did not obtain any significant differences with greyscale images. In Experiments 3 and 4, we compared greyscale office items images, respectively, with greyscale high-calorie food images (Exp. 3) and greyscale low-calorie food images (Exp. 4). In both these last experiments, we did not find any attentional bias. Thus, taken together, our results show that colours convey crucial identity information that could orient our attention. We interpret these results as linked to the relevance of visual appearance in our experience of food.

Healthiness or calories? Side biases in food perception and preference.

The visual perception of a product and the ability to categorize it play a central role in food choice. People's opinion of the healthiness and caloric content of a food is influenced substantially by its appearance. Despite that, few studies have analyzed i) which one of the two dimensions of caloric content and healthiness is preferred to categorize food, ii) if these dimensions are mapped on the individuals' horizontal space, and iii) if such biases could influence food preferences. Therefore, through 4 experiments, we investigated which dimension, healthiness or caloric content, is more often used to categorize foods. We also evaluated whether a healthiness/caloric content side bias could be able to influence food preferences. We found that foods were mainly categorized as "Healthy" or "High-calorie" and the latter label was used more often when presented on the right of a foodstuff. Also, foods were categorized as healthier when the "Healthy" label was anchored to the left and the "Unhealthy" one to the right side of a visual analogue scale. Then, we found a more positive evaluation of transformed food when the key assigned to the "Pleasant" choice was on the right compared to the left. Lastly, we found that when presented on the left side, low-calorie was preferred compared to high-calorie food. Our findings shed light on both the fields of food categorization and side biases in food perception and preferences, suggesting the possibility to use these biases to promote a healthy diet and emphasizing the importance of considering this potential confounder in experimental setups.

Evidence for cephalic phase insulin release in humans: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

The initial release of insulin in response to food stimuli acting on receptors in the head and oropharynx is called the cephalic phase of insulin secretion. Insulin has been shown to act centrally to regulate food intake and glucose metabolism and the cephalic phase of insulin secretion may contribute to these functions. Though well documented in laboratory animals, the existence of cephalic phase insulin release in humans has recently come into question. We therefore performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies of cephalic phase insulin release in humans. Efficacy outcomes included any change in circulating insulin levels in healthy human volunteers post any food stimulus as compared to baseline or control in a time period of no longer than 10 min. Primary outcome: The overall pooled effect size estimate for cephalic phase insulin release was 0.47 [0.36, 0.58] p-value <0.0001. Secondary outcomes: A random effects meta-analysis with an added moderator for type of stimulus presentation (one, two, four or five sensory qualities) and type of stimulus offered (liquid, solid formulation) also significantly influenced results p = 0.0116 and p = 0.0024 respectively, while sex had no significant effect. Sensitivity Analysis: More restrictive analyses only including studies that used non-ingestive stimuli (p = 0.0001), or studies that reported insulin values within 5 min post stimulus presentation (p < 0.0001) still showed significant positive overall effect size estimates. In summary, our analysis shows that there is evidence for the presence of cephalic phase insulin secretion in humans. Secondary analyses suggest that the type and presentation of stimulus may significantly influence cephalic phase insulin secretion, while sex had no significant effect on cephalic phase insulin secretion.

Unhealthy foods taste better among children with lower self-control.

Self-control is important for healthy eating. Achieving and maintaining healthy eating behaviors can be challenging for children. Susceptibility to palatable unhealthy foods with high sugar, fat, and/or salt is a biologically predisposed, dominant response that can hinder healthy eating decisions. Self-control can help adults to build automatized strategies for resisting susceptibility to unhealthy foods. Likewise, if self-control helps children to learn strategies for resisting susceptibility to unhealthy foods, susceptibility to unhealthy foods would be demonstrated in children with low self-control. Specifically, the association between unhealthiness and tastiness (i.e., unhealthy foods taste better) is one of the important mechanisms underlying susceptibility to unhealthy foods. We expected susceptibility to unhealthy foods to be indicated by the association between unhealthiness and tastiness, as well as better taste perception of unhealthy foods and unhealthy food preferences. In our study, fifty-nine children aged 8-13 years reported their perceived self-control, and completed computerized food rating tasks measuring their healthiness, taste, and preference ratings on 30 healthy and 30 unhealthy foods. Results showed that children with lower self-control demonstrated heightened susceptibility to unhealthy foods, but children with higher self-control did not. Our findings suggested that higher levels of self-control would help children to develop healthy eating strategies for regulating dispositional susceptibility to unhealthy foods.

Food perception at lunchtime does not depend on the nutritional and perceived characteristics of breakfast.

Breakfast consumption can entail nutritional advantages positively affecting food choices. This study investigated the effect of minor changes in breakfast composition on the perceived attributes of foods, both at breakfast and at lunchtime. Four breakfasts were defined considering nutritional and perceptual factors. Three breakfasts varied just for a single cereal-based chocolate-containing food item, while a control breakfast mimicked fasting conditions. Breakfast perception was assessed before and after consumption. Subjects rated breakfast energy content on the basis of single items, while judged breakfast healthiness as a whole, suggesting that the combination of different ingredients can modify the perceived health value of foods. Additionally, 4 h after breakfast, a perceptual evaluation of lunch-related food images was performed, without differences among breakfasts. This study extends current knowledge on the relationship between subjective perceptual attributes and objective energy value and food composition, as well as on breakfast impact on food perception at lunchtime.

Perception of food consumed at home and dietary intake: A nationwide study from Brazil.

Perception of food consumed is a key factor in acknowledging the need for behavioral change to improve diet quality. We analyzed family dietary intake according to the head of household's perception of satisfaction with food consumed by the family. Households (n = 13,351) that participated in the Brazilian Household Budget Survey and the National Dietary Survey were classified as satisfied or dissatisfied with the food consumed in the home. We compared the family dietary intake of the two groups considering their socio-demographic characteristics. Satisfied families (n = 4429) reported statistically higher intake (in grams/1000 kcal) of vegetables (47.3 vs 33.7), fruits (46.9 vs 21.4), sugar-sweetened beverages (118 vs 71.7), milk and dairy (57.9 vs 34.6), and ultra-processed products (18.6 vs 9.8); and lower intake of rice (86.2 vs 112), beans (91.7 vs 136), and meat (76.5 vs 84.0) when compared to dissatisfied families (n = 1717). Among satisfied families, in the youngest group we found lower consumption of fruits and higher intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and ultra-processed products when compared to the oldest group. Also among satisfied families, those in the highest per capita income group presented higher intake of fruits and lower intake of beans than those in the lowest income group. Satisfied families in the highest income group also consumed more fruits and less beans than dissatisfied families in the same income group. Socio-demographic characteristics may influence perception of satisfaction with food consumed and potentially influence the success of public health efforts to offer nutrition guidance for families satisfied with diets that may or may not be comprised of healthy food and beverages.

Color of hot soup modulates postprandial satiety, thermal sensation, and body temperature in young women.

The color of food is known to modulate not only consumers' motivation to eat, but also thermal perception. Here we investigated whether the colors of hot soup can influence thermal sensations and body temperature, in addition to the food acceptability and appetite. Twelve young female participants consumed commercial white potage soup, modified to yellow or blue by adding food dyes, at 9 a.m. on 3 separated days. During the test, visual impression (willingness to eat, palatability, comfort, warmth, and anxiety) and thermal sensations were self-reported using visual analog scales. Core (intra-aural) and peripheral (toe) temperatures were continuously recorded 10 min before and 60 min after ingestion. Blue soup significantly decreased willingness to eat, palatability, comfort, and warmth ratings, and significantly increased anxiety feelings compared to the white and yellow soups. After ingestion, the blue soup showed significantly smaller satiety ratings and the tendency of lower thermal sensation scores of the whole body compared to the white and yellow soups. Moreover, a significantly greater increase in toe temperature was found with the yellow soup than the white or blue soup. In conclusion, this study provides new evidence that the colors of hot food may modulate postprandial satiety, thermal sensations and peripheral temperature. Such effects of color may be useful for dietary strategies for individuals who need to control their appetite.

The influence of oral health on patients' food perception: a systematic review.

Oral food perception depends on somatosensory information that includes taste and can be modified by oral components and/or functions such as mastication. The purpose of this study was to describe the interplay between oral health, mastication and taste. A review according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses checklist was conducted on 615 publications found by both PubMed and backward research. Thirty-one studies have been included. The results showed that the decline in taste ability observed during the healthy ageing process could be potentiated by the deterioration of oral health and poor oral hygiene. Prosthetic treatment could modify taste ability and oral food perception. A palatal covering with removable dentures can have an impact on taste perception which may depend on taste modality. During the mastication sequence, taste is apparently scattered throughout the oral cavity, probably through saliva. The deterioration of masticatory function modifies taste perception. Oral health and oral care should consider factors influencing patients' food perception and relations between taste and mastication. Therefore, dentists may modulate these factors to improve food perception and patients' eating pleasure and quality of life.

FTO gene variant modulates the neural correlates of visual food perception.

Variations in the fat mass and obesity associated (FTO) gene are currently the strongest known genetic factor predisposing humans to non-monogenic obesity. Recent experiments have linked these variants to a broad spectrum of behavioural alterations, including food choice and substance abuse. Yet, the underlying neurobiological mechanisms by which these genetic variations influence body weight remain elusive. Here, we explore the brain structural substrate of the obesity-predisposing rs9939609 T/A variant of the FTO gene in non-obese subjects by means of multivariate classification and use fMRI to investigate genotype-specific differences in neural food-cue reactivity by analysing correlates of a visual food perception task. Our findings demonstrate that MRI-derived measures of morphology along middle and posterior fusiform gyrus (FFG) are highly predictive for FTO at-risk allele carriers, who also show enhanced neural responses elicited by food cues in the same posterior FFG area. In brief, these findings provide first-time evidence for FTO-specific differences in both brain structure and function already in non-obese individuals, thereby contributing to a mechanistic understanding of why FTO is a predisposing factor for obesity.

A bait we cannot avoid: Food-induced motor distractibility.

Food is so central to humans' life that keeping our mind away from it is not an easy task. Because of its strong motivational value, food cues attract our attention. However, often food is truly not relevant to our on-going activities. In the present study we investigated the distracting role that task-irrelevant foods (natural and manufactured) and food-cues play in performing goal-directed reaching movements. We explored whether spatial and temporal parameters of reaching movement were influenced by the presence of task-irrelevant stimuli (i.e., distractor effect), and whether this effect was modulated by participants' implicit and explicit ratings of food items and participants' tendency to restrain their diet. First we found that the movement trajectory veered consistently toward food items and food-related distractors. Second, we found that participants' own evaluation of natural and manufactured food played a differential predicting role of the magnitude of temporal and spatial parameters of the distractor effect induced by these types of food. We conclude that perceptual and attentional systems provide preferential access to stimuli in the environment with high significance for organisms.

Superadditive opercular activation to food flavor is mediated by enhanced temporal and limbic coupling.

Food perception is characterized by a transition from initially separate sensations of the olfactory and gustatory properties of the object toward their combined sensory experience during consumption. The holistic flavor experience, which occurs as the smell and taste merge, extends beyond the mere addition of the two chemosensory modalities, being usually perceived as more object-like, intense and rewarding. To explore the cortical mechanisms which give rise to olfactory-gustatory binding during natural food consumption, brain activation during consumption of a pleasant familiar beverage was contrasted with presentation of its taste and orthonasal smell alone. Convergent activation to all presentation modes was observed in executive and chemosensory association areas. Flavor, but not orthonasal smell or taste alone, stimulated the frontal operculum, supporting previous accounts of its central role in the formation of the flavor percept. A functional dissociation was observed in the insula: the anterior portion was characterized by sensory convergence, while mid-dorsal sections activated exclusively to the combined flavor stimulus. psycho-physiological interaction analyses demonstrated increased neural coupling between the frontal operculum and the anterior insula during flavor presentation. Connectivity was also increased with the lateral entorhinal cortex, a relay to memory networks and central node for contextual modulation of olfactory processing. These findings suggest a central role of the insular cortex in the transition from mere detection of chemosensory convergence to a superadditive flavor representation. The increased connections between the frontal operculum and medial temporal memory structures during combined olfactory-gustatory stimulation point to a potential mechanism underlying the acquisition and modification of flavor preferences.

Using sensory properties of food to trigger swallowing: a review.

The effect of food consistency on swallowing function has been widely studied, and it is well recognized that by delaying the flow of the food bolus, thickened liquids can help in the management of swallowing dysfunction. However, fewer studies have been carried out on the impact of food sensory properties and related liking on swallowing function. This paper reviews the role of taste, olfaction, and trigeminal perceptions on swallowing function and highlights the need for a deeper investigation of this aspect of patient diet modification.

Blue lighting decreases the amount of food consumed in men, but not in women.

Previous research has demonstrated that colors of lighting can modulate participants' motivation to consume the food placed under the lighting. This study was designed to determine whether the colors of lighting can affect the amount of food consumed, in addition to sensory perception of the food. The influence of lighting color was also compared between men and women. One-hundred twelve participants (62 men and 50 women) were asked to consume a breakfast meal (omelets and mini-pancakes) under one of three different lighting colors: white, yellow, and blue. During the test, hedonic impression of the food's appearance, willingness to eat, overall flavor intensity and overall impression of the food, and meal size (i.e., the amount of food consumed) were measured. Blue lighting decreased the hedonic impression of the food's appearance, but not the willingness to eat, compared to yellow and white lighting conditions. The blue lighting significantly decreased the amount consumed in men, but not in women, compared to yellow and white lighting conditions. Overall flavor intensity and overall impression of the food were not significantly different among the three lighting colors. In conclusion, this study provides empirical evidence that the color of lighting can modulate the meal size. In particular, blue lighting can decrease the amount of food eaten in men without reducing their acceptability of the food.

Effects of Simulated Airplane Cabin Noise on In-Flight Meal Perception in the Brain Using Electroencephalography.

Auditory distractions can impair the sensory evaluation of food; however, the specific impact of airplane cabin noise on the sensory perception of in-flight meals remains poorly studied. Here, we investigated the effects of airplane cabin noise on the visual processing of in-flight meal stimuli using electroencephalography (EEG) in twenty healthy male subjects. Resting-state EEG and event-related potential (ERP) responses to in-flight meal images were acquired during quiet and simulated cabin noise conditions. Participants reported mild discomfort and some loss of appetite when exposed to airplane cabin noise. The analysis of resting-state EEG showed an increase in the absolute power of theta and beta frequency bands in the left superior parietal and left frontal/right central regions under simulated cabin noise conditions, compared to quiet conditions. The ERP results showed that the amplitude of responses evoked by visual meal images in the superior parietal area was reduced in the noise condition compared to the quiet condition. Our findings suggest that airplane cabin noise disrupts the visual perception and attentional processing of in-flight food stimuli. These neural changes imply an impact on integrating sensory information, resulting in altered sensory evaluations of food during in-flight dining experiences.

Factors Affecting the Consumption of Traditional Food in Tourism-Perceptions of the Management Sector of Catering Facilities.

The topic of this study is the factors that influence the consumption of traditional food products (TFPs) in tourism, as seen from the perspective of management-sector employees in food and beverage catering facilities. The paper aims to analyse the economic, environmental, social, and touristic factors that highly influence the consumption patterns of catering facilities which are significant providers of traditional gastronomic experiences in tourism, by using the specially designed TFPct scale. The study was conducted on a sample of 300 catering facilities in AP Vojvodina (the Republic of Serbia). An explanatory factor analysis was used to confirm the key factors that influence the consumption of traditional products used to prepare the meals that are a part of what catering facilities offer. Subsequently, a binary logistics regression model was used to establish which of the indicated factors has a statistically significant effect on the management's decision to purchase these products for their catering facility. The study showed that the TFPct scale is appropriate for this type of research, and that economic factors are key factors in the consumption of traditional products. Moreover, compared with other types of catering facilities, interest in the consumption of these products is clearly expressed by a la carte restaurants.

Does food recognition depend on color?

Color is considered important in food perception, but its role in food-specific visual mechanisms is unclear. We explore this question in North American adults. We build on work revealing contributions from domain-general and domain-specific abilities in food recognition and a negative correlation between the domain-specific component and food neophobia (FN, aversion to novel food). In Study 1, participants performed two food-recognition tests, one in color and one in grayscale. Removing color reduced performance, but food recognition was predicted by domain-general and -specific abilities, and FN negatively correlated with food recognition. In Study 2, we removed color from both food tests. Food recognition was still predicted by domain-general and food-specific abilities, but with a relation between food-specific ability and FN. In Study 3, color-blind men reported lower FN than men with normal color perception. These results suggest two separate food-specific recognition mechanisms, only one of which is dependent on color.

Does the future of meat in France depend on cultured muscle cells? Answers from different consumer segments.

This research aimed to study the perception of French consumers on "cultured meat". The respondents (n = 5418) are characterised by an over-representation of young people, meat professional or scientists compared to the French population. Approximately 40-50% of them believed that animal husbandry faced ethical and environmental issues. Only 18-26% of them believed that "cultured meat" could solve these difficulties, a majority thought that it would not be healthy or tasty and that "cultured meat" is an "absurd and/or disgusting" idea. However, 23.9% and 16.9% thought it is a "fun and/or interesting" and a "promising and/or feasible" idea and 91.7% were not prepared to buy "cultured meat" at a higher price than meat. The respondents not familiar with "cultured meat", young people or women are more in support of it due to a greater sensitivity to issues related to livestock systems. Older men and meat professionals are the most reluctant. Thus, the "cultured meat" market would represent at best a niche market.