Food Reward and Food Choice. An Inquiry Through The Liking and Wanting Model

Abstract

What if consumers are getting obese because eating less calories is more difficult for persons that have a higher pleasure and desire towards food (Ikeda et al., 2005) and food companies do not help given only a two extreme option choice to satisfy their needs (i.e., low calories vs. high calories or healthy vs. unhealthy)? Reward systems are being described with a new conceptual approach where liking—the pleasure derived from eating a given food—and wanting—motivational value, desire, or craving—can be seen as the significant forces guiding eating behavior. Our work shows that pleasure (liking), desire (wanting), and the interaction between them influence and are good predictors of food choice and food intake. Reward responses to food are closely linked to food choice, inducing to caloric overconsumption. Based on the responses given to a self-administered questionnaire measuring liking and wanting attitudes, we found three different segments named ‘Reward lovers,’ ‘Half epicurious,’ and ‘Non indulgents’. Their behavior when choosing food is quite different. Results show differential effects on caloric consumption depending on segments. The introduction of more food choices that try to balance their content is a win-win strategy for consumers, companies, and society.

Impact of COVID-19 on lifestyle-related behaviours- a cross-sectional audit of responses from nine hundred and ninety-five participants from India

“…The results of this study highlight a significant but limited (mostly by one unit) improvement in quality of meals consumed by reduction in the consumption of calorie-dense fast food, fried food and SSBs. Contrary to our findings, some studies suggest that confinement increased intake of HFSS food items, which could be attributed to eating out of anxiety or boredom, a dip in motivation to maintain healthy eating or an increase in mood-driven eating [ 11 , 12 ]. However, in our study the participants reported less socializing and eating out, preference to home cooked meals, time availability for meal preparation, incorporation of immunity-boosting foods to maintain health and better family support in maintenance of healthy eating pattern as prime reasons for reduction in unhealthy eating behaviors.…”

Covid-19 and the Subsequent Lockdown Modified Dietary Habits of Almost Half the Population in an Italian Sample

“…Alas, half of the participants increased consumption of comfort foods, be them sweet or salty. Whether this is due to the induction of a vicious cycle is still a matter of debate, but there is a clear relation between anxiety levels and cravings/hunger pangs [20]. This agrees with very recent evidence showing that protein consumption is more stable than carbohydrate consumption, suggesting biological control mechanism(s) tightly regulate protein intake and, consequently, influence intake of other macronutrients and food constituents [21].…”

Conceptual Models of Food Choice: Influential Factors Related to Foods, Individual Differences, and Society

“…Before reaching the final output of food choice behavior, cognitive factors have their impacts on food decision-making. Possessing knowledge (especially nutritional and food-related knowledge) [ 24 , 34 , 48 , 52 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 64 , 70 , 78 , 79 , 82 , 88 , 93 , 94 , 97 , 106 , 107 ] as well as food management skills [ 41 , 48 , 52 , 75 , 83 , 90 , 92 , 97 ] can have great influence on food choice. For example, nutrition knowledge has been shown to be a partial mediator of the socio-demographic variation in food intake, especially for fruit and vegetables, implying that knowledge is an important factor in explaining variations in food choice [ 108 ].…”

“…About the direction of influence among the factors in the conceptual models, fewer conceptual models are supported with empirical data [ 57 , 60 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 74 , 78 , 91 , 92 , 93 , 96 , 102 , 106 , 109 ].…”