The Psychology of Hunger: Amazing Facts About the Way We Eat

By Chris Schonberger

Aug 15, 2013

“Eating mindfully” is the type of phrase you expect to hear from a nutritionist with an out-of-print self-help manual and an upsetting YouTube channel. But while it’s easy to shrug off this type of advice with stuff-upper-lip bravado, it’s impossible to deny the overwhelming evidence that our food impulses are, for the most part, all in our heads.

The psychology of eating is important to explore for two main reasons: It can help you understand your craving better should you have any desire to control them, and it can help you see through the marketing of big food brands that have done a huge amount of research to figure out how to hook you with their products. The field of food science is also just plain interesting, full of lab-tested mind games and shocking facts that make for great dinner-table conversation.

Here, we take a quick survey of some of the most interesting findings from food psychology studies. Find out why poor sleep makes you crave egg-and-cheese sandwiches, what the “buffet effect” is, and how many cheeseburgers you need to achieve the pleasure of an orgasm,

Rituals can actually make food more flavorful.

Food companies control your mind with texture.

In terms of pleasure, two cheeseburgers are roughly equivalent to one orgasm.

The sense of smell represents 80% of flavor.

Sleeping poorly makes you crave fatty foods.

You're three times more likely to eat the first thing you see in the pantry than the fifth.

The “buffet effect" is very real.

Your perception of how much you're eating can make you feel more or less full, even if the amount of food is the same.

The Psychology of Hunger: Amazing Facts About the Way We Eat

Rituals can actually make food more flavorful.

Food companies control your mind with texture.

In terms of pleasure, two cheeseburgers are roughly equivalent to one orgasm.

The sense of smell represents 80% of flavor.

Sleeping poorly makes you crave fatty foods.

You're three times more likely to eat the first thing you see in the pantry than the fifth.

The “buffet effect" is very real.

Your perception of how much you're eating can make you feel more or less full, even if the amount of food is the same.

Creating weird food combinations may be a sign of binge-eating.

Color affects your feelings about food.

You can improve your productivity by 20% through food choices alone.

Some people really do taste soap when they eat cilantro.

Rituals can actually make food more flavorful.

Food companies control your mind with texture.

In terms of pleasure, two cheeseburgers are roughly equivalent to one orgasm.

The sense of smell represents 80% of flavor.

Sleeping poorly makes you crave fatty foods.

You're three times more likely to eat the first thing you see in the pantry than the fifth.

The “buffet effect" is very real.

Your perception of how much you're eating can make you feel more or less full, even if the amount of food is the same.

Creating weird food combinations may be a sign of binge-eating.

Color affects your feelings about food.

You can improve your productivity by 20% through food choices alone.

Some people really do taste soap when they eat cilantro.

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