Assessing food appeal and desire to eat: the effects of portion size & energy density

Abstract

BackgroundVisual presentation of food provides considerable information such as its potential for palatability and availability, both of which can impact eating behavior.MethodsWe investigated the subjective ratings for food appeal and desire to eat when exposed to food pictures in a fed sample (n = 129) using the computer paradigm ImageRate. Food appeal and desire to eat were analyzed for the effects of food group, portion size and energy density of the foods presented as well as by participant characteristics.ResultsFood appeal ratings were significantly higher than those for desire to eat (57.9 ± 11.6 v. 44.7 ± 18.0; p < 0.05). Body mass index was positively correlated to desire to eat (r = 0.20; p < 0.05), but not food appeal. Food category analyses revealed that fruit was the highest rated food category for both appeal and desire, followed by discretionary foods. Additionally, overweight individuals reported higher ratings of desire to eat large portions of food compared to smaller portions (p < 0.001), although these effects were relatively small. Energy density of the foods was inversely correlated with ratings for both appeal and desire (r's = - 0.27; p's < 0.01).ConclusionsResults support the hypothesis that individuals differentiate between food appeal and desire to eat foods when assessing these ratings using the same type of metric. Additionally, relations among food appeal and desire to eat ratings and body mass show overweight individuals could be more responsive to visual foods cues in a manner that contributes to obesity.

Using participant hedonic ratings of food images to construct data driven food groupings

“…Hedonic ratings and food frequency data were initially collected on 100 participants for another study (Burger, Cornier, Ingebrigtsen, & Johnson, 2011) that aimed to investigate the relations among food appeal, desire to eat and body weight status. An additional aim was added to the study to undertake a principal components analysis to understand how hedonic ratings might relate to food groupings.…”

“…The computer program ImageRate was written in Microsoft Office Access ® (Microsoft, Seattle, WA, 2007) and presented food images, one at a time, in a random order, and has previously been reported as a reliable instrument to assess hedonic ratings of food images (Burger et al, 2011). Hedonic ratings were assessed by a measure of food appeal which queried ‘How appealing is this food?’ anchored by 0 = ‘Not appealing at all’ to 100 = ‘Extremely appealing.’ An additional question was used to assess frequency of intake of each food in a subsample of participants.…”

Harnessing the power of disgust: a randomized trial to reduce high-calorie food appeal through implicit priming

“…High-calorie (mean 6 SEM: 303.65 6 15.93 kcal/100 g) and low-calorie (mean 6 SEM: 73.63 6 8.65 kcal/100 g) image groups were matched for palatability as described previously (17). The desire to eat was defined as "the degree to which a person wants to eat that food at that moment" and rated by using a VAS from 0 to 100 (anchored by "not at all" on the left and "very much" on the right).…”

“…A total of 90 food images (45 high-calorie and 45 low-calorie images) were assessed for the desire to eat by using a visual analog scale (VAS) with the ImageRate program (17). High-calorie (mean 6 SEM: 303.65 6 15.93 kcal/100 g) and low-calorie (mean 6 SEM: 73.63 6 8.65 kcal/100 g) image groups were matched for palatability as described previously (17).…”

Sensitivity to portion size of unhealthy foods

“…The public tends to misperceive portion size (Burger, Cornier, Ingebrigtsen, & Johnson, 2011;Faulkner et al, 2013;Just & Wansink, 2013). When characterizing stimulus perception, two parameters typically are estimated: threshold and sensitivity (Macmillan & Creelman, 1991).…”