The facts that we are analyzing have suggested, for some years now, that our eating habits and the decisions we make about what we eat are acquired over the course of several years , they are not things that come by themselves or that can be considered sudden.

But what psychological processes are at the basis of this type of learning ?

And why do diet preferences vary between different groups of people?

A group of scholars has worked in depth on the links between cognition and dietary control and between these on the relationship between attention and meal size and also on our reactions to sight and smell when we eat and, finally, on the decisions that lead us to choose. portion sizes.

Most of our taste preferences and eating behaviors are learned and despite this, we know very little about the underlying mechanisms

Different types of diet learning have been identified , research has been done on how to connect flavors with other different flavors and associate these flavors with bodily sensations such as fullness.

Some of these processes may take place outside of our awareness as a form of machine learning.

But being aware of our preferences can help us treat our eating disorders.

How to do? With the help of psychologists, who work throughout Italy.

If you are in Piedmont, for example, you can speak to a psychologist in Turin .

Habits to change.

The size of the meal is a determining factor and many times we completely fail to approach the dish by eating much more than we should.

Some people have no idea when they are full. And distraction can greatly reduce our sense of satiety without us noticing it. If we are distracted at the PC or in front of the TV we do not have perception of how much we eat as when we are concentrated.

This suggests that distraction causes a reduced sensitivity to physiological and sensory indications that signal the sense of fullness typical of those who are full. A further experiment showed that distracted participants still want to eat, concentrated ones get full much earlier.

In most cases, exposure to the sight and smell of food can trigger the desire to eat it. Experiments have been conducted to explore this phenomenon in a great many countries.

Looking at food leads to eating it and even in larger quantities than it should.

Overweight people also eat larger portions of food even if they are not so hungry. The dimensions are not related to weight, sex and hunger but to what is the perception of our body and what we think are the right dimensions.

So it’s the head that tells us when to eat, what to eat, it’s always the head that makes us want one thing instead of another.

A psychological path can only improve our eating habits, before any diet is proposed to us.

If you do not want to diet, you will not do it carefully, we must first take care of the head and then our overweight.