Turns out you *do* have room for something sweet.
Remember when you were a kid, and you tried to convince your parents that you were “full from dinner” but you still had a room for dessert? Well, it turns out thatdessert stomach is actually a real thing, at least according to a recent study.
When I was travelling in the United States during my early 20s, one of my hosts used to say that you couldn’t possibly be too full for sweets after dinner, because dessert just “fills in the gaps” – a notion which always made a giggle. And while “filling in the gaps” might be a liiiiittle bit of a stretch, it turns out that the notion of a dinner stomach and a separate stomach for dessert may not actually be that far from the truth.
Several studies havelooked athuman’s uncanny ability to always find room for dessert, and they’ve all come up with a similar answer. We do have extra room for dessert, mainly because of something known as sensory-specific satiety.
Sensory specific satiety
Satiety is essentially the quality of being full andsensory-specific refers to a combination of the taste, appearance, smell and texture of whatever you’ve been eating – or are about to eat.
According to Dr Barbara Rolls at the Penn State University Laboratory for the Study of Human Ingestive Behaviour, who’s been studying sensory-specific satiety since the 1980s, it comes as a result of chemicals which stimulate the brains reward centre, producing pleasurable feelingswhen we eat.
These pleasurable feels, however, gradually decline as you continue eating. “The decline in pleasure you derive from food is specific to the food that you’ve been eating,” says Dr Rolls. “Or to other foods that are similar.”
“So, while you might lose your appetite for that food, a different food will be appealing. That’s why you always have room for dessert.”
What we perceive as the feeling of being full, or satisfied, can often simply be a chemical co*cktail which tells us our brain has “lost interest” in that particular food. Which makes sense, really. If you think back to those truffle french fries you were desperate to taste, the first bite may have been amazing, the second bite was probably just as good, and perhaps even the fifth or sixth. But eventually, that feeling of enjoyment begins to diminish.
The dessert stomach study
Professor Rolls’ research has shown that while we can get sick of eating the same food over a period of time, our appetite miraculously rebounds when we switch foods, say, from a pizza to a chocolate sundae.
In fact, one of her first studies was an experiment in which participants were given a four course meal. One group of participants received four courses ofthe same food, whereas the other received fourdifferent dishes.
The results showed that the second group consumed around 60% more calories than the group who received four identical courses, because they stayed interested in the foods, and gained pleasure from the variety.
Dr Rolls reckons that it’s an evolutionary tactic that human’s developed to keep them healthy. A healthy diet needs to be varied, therefore, our brains have evolved to reward a varied diet: to tell us that changes in what we consume are good.
“We’re omnivores,” Dr Rolls explains. “And we need to eat a variety, it helps guarantee you will eat the variety of nutrients you need… Change in appeal during a meal keeps us going, keeps us eating.”
The scientific reason you always have room for dessert
News website Vox carried out a similar experiment, which was based on one of Professor Rolls’ earlier studies. Although in this version, the participants were given a meal of macaroni and cheese (yum), which was followed by a dessert of macaroni and cheese (less yum).
The volunteers were asked to score their interest in the meal and then score their interest in the dessert. Interest levels dropped sharply –– from a 6.2 out of 10, to a 1.3 out of 10 –– after the first course.
The team then repeated a similar sequence of events on a different day, although this time, the volunteers were given ice cream for dessert, instead of macaroni and cheese.Andthe participants ate three times more ice cream than they did mac and cheese “dessert”.
The bottom line
So, there you have it. Dessert stomach is a real thing. While it may not be aphysical stomach, the reward chemicals that your brain produces have a similar effect. Those chemicals tell you that “new food” is interesting and good, and you should eat it, at the exact same time that they’re telling you that “old food” (or food you’ve already eaten) is boring, and we’ve had enough of it, thank you very much.
Now, where’s that pie gone? I could go for something sweet right about now.
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