Eating Ethically by Jonathan Crane

Author:Jonathan Crane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Columbia University Press

FIGURE 7.1

Satiety and satiation.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that a central goal of food science is to manipulate both satiety and satiation, interrupting the first and extending the second, so that our eating will become all but continuous from the moment we wake until we fall asleep.

Insofar as satiety is the state of noneating, observing it is fairly easy. Scholarship in satiety centers on the intervals between the conclusion of one meal and the onset of another. Such intermeal intervals indicate that the organism in question is experiencing relative internal stability, or homeostasis. Assessing homeostasis, however, is rather tricky, especially when working with other species with whom communication about their internal states is impossible. But with humans it is possible to get information about how an eater, who is now not eating, is feeling. Human hunger can be communicated. So scientists have asked people to assess and record their subjective experience of hunger after a meal. This subjective variable (called intensity) is coupled with two objective variables: the timed delay of when the next meal is requested (duration) and the amount of food actually taken in during that subsequent meal (the test meal). Putting these variables into mathematical relationships enables scholars to measure satiety ratings, or the motivation to break one’s fast and eat again. While earlier studies looked at the next or test meal to calculate satiety ratings, more recent work increasingly attends to the “preload,” or the prior meal’s energy and weight, since these contribute to the stoppage of eating in the first place.8

Such questions also concern satiation because they implicate the various mechanisms that bring a meal to a conclusion. It remains unclear, however, precisely which variables are at play in satiation. For example, external issues like the weight and energy density of foods impact an eater’s intake. So do the environment (physical and social), time pressures and other stressors, smells (especially those of the foods themselves), and even how the food is presented (buffet or plated, where on the plate, course sequence, portion size, etc.). Internal factors of the food itself to consider are the macronutrient composition of the food, its temperature, texture, and flavor. Consider, too, factors regarding the eater’s act of eating itself, including the duration of and amount taken in a meal, the number of bites, the number of chews and swallows, the time taken to chew, the number and length of pauses, drinks, and more. More factors include the signals and processes of digestion itself, the distension of the stomach, nutrient sensors and uptake along the metabolic tract, the regulation of internal energy in the hypothalamus, and short- and long-term signals of satisfaction associated with the absorption of nutrients.9 Now fold in mental states, learned assumptions about what constitutes a meal and even hunger itself, the anticipation of eating, hedonic or pleasurable experiences derived from eating in general and eating preferred foods in particular, and do not forget identity issues like gender, race, class, education, culture, religion, and more.

All these factors influence satiation.

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