A new study suggests that hunger makes people prioritize tastiness over nutritional value when choosing food, potentially contributing to unhealthy dietary habits. The research, published in eLife, offers compelling evidence that hunger alters attention and decision-making, making individuals less likely to consider health-related information while choosing food.
Despite efforts to combat obesity through public health initiatives, obesity rates have continued to rise globally. The World Health Organization reports that adult obesity has more than doubled since 1990, and adolescent obesity has quadrupled. Obesity is linked to serious health risks, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and certain cancers.
In the study, researchers investigated how hunger affects the decision-making process related to food. Participants were asked to make food choices in both hungry and satiated states, after an overnight fast. They were shown food options labeled with Nutri-Scores (a nutritional rating system) and tracked their eye movements using eye-tracking technology. The results revealed that while all participants preferred tastier foods, hunger significantly amplified this preference and decreased their attention to the nutritional labels.
The research suggests that hunger not only enhances the perceived reward of calorie-dense foods but also alters how the brain processes information, making people more likely to focus on taste and ignore health labels. Hungry participants made quicker decisions and paid less attention to the Nutri-Score, often ignoring it unless specifically focused on it.
This study highlights that simply displaying nutritional information may not be enough to influence food choices when people are hungry. The researchers suggest that interventions promoting healthy eating should make health information more visually prominent or guide attention toward it.
The findings underscore the need for more effective public health interventions that can counteract the biological drive to choose unhealthy foods when hungry. Future studies may explore how these findings apply in real-world settings, where environmental cues and marketing tactics further influence decision-making.
As lead researcher Sebastian Gluth notes, the key takeaway is that hunger alters the decision-making process itself by shifting the brain’s attention toward the tastiness of food and away from its health benefits.
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