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By Matthew Rees

Food and Health Fact #130: Food variety and satiety

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This week's "food for thought" excerpt is from The Volumetrics Weight-Control Plan (2000), by Barbara Rolls and Robert A Barnett.

"We know from studies at the Eating Lab that the variety of foods offered in a meal can affect how much is eaten. The more variety, the less likely it is that sensory-specific satiety will curb your eating. For example, when we fed students four courses of very different foods, they ate 60 percent more than when they had just one of the foods. Even when people had sandwiches with four different fillings, they ate a third more than when they had their favorite filling in all the sandwiches. Just varying the shape of food . . . can increase intake. People ate 15 percent more when offered three shapes of pasta than when they had only their favorite shape."