Most of us are familiar with the pub tradition of sharing crisps from an open packet, but have you noticed how your hand keeps reaching for more, almost without thinking? Recent research from the University of East Anglia suggests a scientific reason behind this behaviour.
Lead researcher Dr Thomas Sambrook explains: “Rising obesity isn’t simply about willpower – it’s a sign that our food-rich environments and learned responses to mouthwatering cues are overpowering the body’s natural appetite controls.” His team studied brainwaves and found that people’s brains were always excited by delicious-looking food, regardless of how full they were.
Dr Sambrook says: “You can eat a food until you are completely sated, but your brain still says ‘yum’ when you see pictures of it.” This reinforces a subconscious habit: seeing tasty food triggers eating, overriding natural appetite controls. “You don’t eat because of internal factors such as feeling hungry or having low blood sugar; you eat because of cues in your environment,” he adds.
Our brains evolved in an environment where food was scarce, but today we are surrounded by constant visual cues for high-calorie, low-nutrition snacks. This “obesogenic environment” leads to eating in the absence of hunger. Ultra-processed foods are particularly problematic, as they are energy-dense and can bypass the brain’s stop signals.
Dr Sambrook suggests that wider societal changes, such as removing visible cues for unhealthy products, could help. He draws a parallel with cigarettes: “If you want to buy cigarettes, you have to imagine them, so the government did the right thing.”
