Socio-cultural determinants of meal size and frequency

Abstract

Total energy intake and the frequency and size of meals are profoundly influenced by the sociocultural context in which it occurs. Simply eating with one other person increases the average amount ingested in meals by 44% and with more people present the average meal size grows even larger. The impact of social facilitation of energy intake on the individual appears to result from genetic effects both on the individuals' sensitivity to the presence of other people and also on the number of other people an individual tends to eat with. Culture markedly affects the choice of foods in the diet and the pattern of meals over the day. However, many of the social, psychological and physical variables that influence intake are similar across cultures.

Amygdalo-Hypothalamic Circuit Allows Learned Cues to Override Satiety and Promote Eating

“…Studies in both laboratory animals and humans show that external cues associated previously with food (learned cues) exert powerful control over feeding behavior. Learned cues can override regulatory signals linked to energy balance (Weingarten, 1983;De Castro, 1997), and disturbance in the extrinsic control of feeding systems may cause overeating (Rodin, 1981;Wardle, 1988;Booth, 1989). The present findings have defined components of brain circuitry that allow food-associated cues to override "satiety" signals.…”

“…Overeating is attributable, at least in part, to the fact that food consumption is powerfully influenced by a variety of environmental factors that are unrelated to energy requirements (Rodin, 1981;Booth, 1989). Eating can be socially facilitated (De Castro, 1997), and cues that become associated with food when hunger prevails can increase eating in satiated states (Weingarten, 1983).…”

“…Overeating is attributable, at least in part, to the fact that food consumption is powerfully influenced by a variety of environmental factors that are unrelated to energy requirements (Rodin, 1981;Booth, 1989). Eating can be socially facilitated (De Castro, 1997), and cues that become associated with food when hunger prevails can increase eating in satiated states (Weingarten, 1983).Recent research is beginning to define the neural systems through which such psychological processes influence eating. Under conditions that strongly potentiate feeding, laboratory rats with neurotoxic lesions of the basolateral amygdalar area (BLA) [including basolateral ("basal"), basomedial ("accessory basal"), and lateral nuclei] fail to increase eating in the presence of a conditioned stimulus (CS) that was previously paired with food (Gallagher, 2000;Holland et al, 2002).…”

Dietary, Anthropometric, Biochemical and Psychiatric Indices in Shift Work Nurses

“…It has been reported that the total energy and nutrient intakes increase when individuals eat with others [23]. However shift workers have fewer opportunities to take meals with their families and friends.…”

Association of food form with self-reported 24-h energy intake and meal patterns in US adults: NHANES 2003–2008

“…However, physiology is only one facet of the complex array of effectors of ingestive behaviors of free-living individuals. Recent studies have added to our understanding of the powerful modulating role of environmental cues and social contexts in affecting the amount of food consumed (20,21). Therefore, the likelihood that observed effects of manipulations of a single or limited number of meal characteristics in the laboratory will be replicated in free-living individuals is low.…”