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The psychology and sociology of feeding behaviour
Food intake (how much to eat) and preference (what to eat) dictate nutrient balance and ultimately an individual’s fitness and productivity. Emerging evidence suggests that the mechanisms underlying hunger and satiety are not only governed by physiological signals associated with the homeostatic control of food intake but also by their interaction with pathways involved in the control of food reward and hedonics. The hedonic value of a food – or how pleasurable to the animal such food results- is in part motivated by the individual’s previous experiences with its orosensorial and biochemical properties. Taste (as well as smell and sight) allows animals to discriminate among foods and is a source of hedonic sensations. Postingestive feedback calibrates such sensations with its homeostatic utility, influencing food preference and chemical composition of the diet. This mechanism identifies foods adequate in nutrients (or in chemicals that enhance health) and foods with nutrient deficiencies/imbalances (or in chemicals which are toxic), thereby increasing or decreasing preference, respectively. The cultural inflection is manifest through mother and peers, representing a model from which naïve observers learn new behaviors and are exposed to novel environmental experiences. These experiences begin in uteroand continue after birth, priming individuals to learn from their individual orosensorial and postingestive experiences. In turn, the new knowledge created within a social group is maintained and transmitted by mothers across generations. It is proposed that a strategic management of an animal’s experiences with food, i.e., a certain target food presented early in life with mother/peers, or in close temporal association with other nutritious/medicinal foods, has the potential to enhance animal health, productivity and well-being.
Keywords: Food Choice, Behavior, Preference