Appetite Regulation, Energy Balance, and Obesity

Question 1

Give three examples of unconscious biases in eating behaviours research

Answer 1

1) weight is a personal issue under everyone’s control
2) everyone has equal access to health education and food choices
3) everyone is like me

Question 2

Is eating influenced by the patriarchy?

Answer 2

Women often do not eat what they want; media plays on insecurities and body image ideals, sexualised breast feeding, overweight women get treated worse than overweight men.

Question 3

What is Set-Point Theory?

Answer 3

Our body is has a natural mechanism that maintains a set body weight after reaching a certain age. If the weight falls lower than the set point, the body’s metabolism slows down and hunger increases to regain the lost weight.

Question 4

What is the difference between Satiety and Satiation?

Answer 4

Satiety: the feeling of fullness between meals
Satiation: the feeling of fullness during the ingestion of a meal

Question 5

Outline a piece of research related to plate size and colour?

Answer 5

Van Ittersum & Wansink (2012)
Plate Size: Delboeuf Illusion, the greater the rim edge, the smaller the portion estimation.
Colour contrast: colour assimilation causes people to under-estimate portion size, whilst colour contrast causes people to over-estimate portion size.

Question 7

How does body weight influence plate size and colour illusions?

Answer 7

Peng (2017)
Normal weight people are less likely to be influenced by plate size and colour illusion effects than overweight people.

Question 8

Outline Cannon and Wasburn’s 1912 study

Answer 8

investigating hunger, and gastric contractions during periods of hunger.
They recorded subjective sensations, and physiological process, which could then be extrapolated and generalised to the human experience of hunger.
Self-reported hunger alongside gastric contractions, measured by pressure changes in the stomach using a gastric balloon.