Food Psychology: The three drivers of eating
Do you sit down to watch a movie and wonder why you just can’t seem to stop eating? There may be a very good reason why. In nutrition psychology, there are three potential drivers for the food choices that we make. These are:
1. Palatability: eating to satisfy the want for a certain food sensation (reaching for a particular taste, or texture). For example, this can be in response to a psychological or physical need (such as reaching for comfort foods as a response to stress). It is also interesting to know, humans are naturally more drawn to more sweet tasting foods and reject more bitter foods – these are the only taste preferences we are born with, all of our other preferences are learned!
2. Physiology: eating to satisfy a physiological need (eg. hunger, energy availability, macronutrient requirement). One very common example of this is finishing a busy work day just to come home and eat everything in the kitchen – reaching for a snack then all of a sudden the whole bag of potato chips is gone. The biggest cause of this behaviour is undereating during the earlier parts of the day (putting the body in a negative energy balance), therefore driving you to reach for more energy dense food choices.
3. Preoccupation: eating food associated with a task or action (eating while watching TV). This eating behaviour is not associated with fulfilling a psychological or physiological need – it is an example of a task-related behaviour. The human brain is not a great multitasker and therefore, can only actively pay attention to completing one task at a time. While we are performing a non-food related task, we are less in-tune with the body’s hunger cues and are more prone to overeating.
As a sports nutritionist, I can help you identify your eating behaviours and help you to develop better habits to manage your energy intake. If this is something you are interested in learning more about, send us a message to book your initial consult!
- Bec Patterson (Accredited Exercise Scientist; Accredited Sports Nutritionist)