The ‘Crunch Effect’: People May Eat Less If They Tune In To Food Sounds

People who tune in to the sounds of food while eating may eat less. A new study has found that the so-called "crunch effect" could make people consume less food as the sound makes them more conscious.

The Daily Mail reported that a team of researchers from Brigham Young University and Colorado State University concluded that food sounds made by people while eating have a significant influence on the amount of food that they are going to consume. Dubbed as the "crunch effect," they discovered that diners feel conscious about the sounds associated with chewing, chomping, and crunching, making them to eat less.

"Sound is typically labeled as the forgotten food sense, but if people are more focused on the sound the food makes, it could reduce consumption," said Ryan Elder, co-author of the study which was published in the journal Food Quality and Preference. "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."

According to Fox13, the researchers conducted the study by asking students to eat snack while wearing headphones with either loud or soft music playing. The results showed that louder noise group consumed more food compared to the quiet group. Although the difference of the consumption between the two groups is small, the percentage of reduction is 25 percent.

In another experiment, the researchers also noticed reduced consumption when they asked the students to watch an advertisement suggesting them to think of eating sounds. "It's this idea of creating more mindfulness during consumption, getting people to think about what they're eating, when they're eating," Elder explained.

Elder added that the recent findings may not be the solution to all diet woes, however, the knowledge about the crunch effect may be helpful to some. "We know there are significant money spent on diet books, diet websites, obesity epidemic we have in the US, anything we can use helps," Elder stated.