Effects of priming, food palatability and calorie information on appetite in restrained eaters

After ingesting a moderate amount of food. (e.g., a 7 oz milkshake) which is labeled as high in calories, restrained eaters (dieters) eat more food than unrestrained eaters do. This counter regulatory eating effect may depend on ingesting only a small snack, a prime. The effect of a prime may depend on its palatability and on information about its caloric value. Accordingly, restrained and unrestrained eaters received a low or high palatable prime, and no, low or high calorie information. Dependent measures were salivation and amount of 4 test foods eaten.

After subjects ingested the prime, salivation was reliably greater for high than for no calorie information groups, irrespective of restraint. salivation was reliably correlated with calorie information, and with amount of food eaten, for restrained eaters but not for unrestrained eaters. Differences in amount eaten were negligible across groups. However, restrained eaters tended to eat more peanuts than unrestrained eaters did in the low calorie information condition.

Based on these and previous data, it was suggested that the effect of calorie information on salivation may have been a consequence of subjects' prior experiences with foods of different caloric values. Possibly, salivation to high calorie information represents a conditioned response to a food that is perceived as palatable and filling. However, responding may be greater for restrained than for unrestrained eaters. Finally, the effect of calorie information on salivation supports the argument against an extreme separation of internal (physiological) and external (environmental) variables.