Trying to Curb Your Appetite? Just Listen to Yourself Chew

Dubbed as the “Crunch Effect”, being aware of the noise your food makes while you’re eating means you are more likely to eat less, according to researchers from Brigham Young University and Colorado State University.

According to this research, you can control your appetite by hearing the sound of chewing your food.

However, the effect isn’t caused by the noise that come from cooking your food, such as bacon sizzling in a pan, or even noises such as the crack of your crème brûlée. It is specifically the noise caused by chewing your food.

To reach their conclusion, researchers carried out three separate experiments and found that not only were people more likely to eat less when they heard the sound of food, but even an advertisement that included eating sounds was enough to have an effect.

The team also found that in one of the studies, people ate less when the sound of the food was more intense. In the study, participants who wore headphones that played a loud noise while they ate snacks — which masked the sound of chewing — ate more than participants wearing headphones that played a quiet noise, and consumed four pretzels compared to the “quiet” group’s 2.75 pretzels.

Commenting on the results, co-author Ryan Elder said, “The effects many not seem huge — one less pretzel — but over the course of a week, month, or year, it could really add up.”

From the results, the team suggest being more mindful of your food — not just how it tastes and looks, but also the sound of it — so switching off the TV or turning down loud music could help people to focus more on their food and eating, and in turn consume less.

“Sound is typically labelled as the forgotten food sense,” added Elder. “But if people are more focused on the sound that the food makes, it could reduce consumption.”

The study is published in the Food Quality and Preference journal.