London - The idea of listening to ourselves chewing while eating alone may sound dreadfully boring.
However, drowning out the sound of our chewing can result in unexpected weight gain.
Eating while distracted makes people likely to consume larger portions because they are not aware of what they are doing.
By contrast, people have been found to eat less when they are more conscious of the sound their food makes while eating.
A team of Brigham Young University (BYU) and Colorado State University scientists discovered that the noise a person makes while eating has a significant effect on how much food they eat.
The “crunch effect” suggests that people are less likely to binge if they are conscious of the sound made by eating their food. They warn that loud TV or blaring music can mask the very eating sounds that help to keep people in check.
Study author Ryan Elder of BYU said: “Sound is typically labelled as the forgotten food sense, but if people are more focused on the sound the food makes, it could reduce consumption.”
The scientists specified that “food sounds” do not refer to the sizzling of bacon or the sound of popcorn popping. Instead, the effect comes from the sounds associated with chewing, chomping and crunching.
The scientists carried out three separate experiments on the effect of ‘food sound salience’.
They found that merely suggesting a person think of eating sounds can decrease consumption.
Furthermore, one of the experiments showed that people eat less when the sound made by chewing is more intense.
Participants wore headphones generating loud or quiet noise while they ate snacks.
Louder noise masked the sound of chewing, and participants listening to loud music ate four pretzels, while those listening to quiet music ate 2.75.
Elder said: “When you mask the sound of consumption, like when you watch TV while eating, you take away one of those senses and it may cause you to eat more than you would normally.
“The effects may not seem huge - one less pretzel - but over the course of a week, month or year, it could really add up.”
According to a study published in the Food Quality and Preference, scientists suggest that being more mindful of chewing sounds when eating can help to “nudge” consumers to eat less.
Daily Mail