Remembered Meal Satisfaction, Satiety, and Later Snack Food Intake: A Laboratory Study

It is well established that the satiety providing effects of food can influence meal size and a disparate area of research suggests that memory regarding recent eating informs food intake. Here we examined whether remembered meal satisfaction (encompassing memory for meal liking and satiety) can be manipulated in the laboratory and whether this influences later food intake. Participants (N = 128, body mass index mean = 23.46kg/m², standard deviation = 4.70) consumed a fixed lunch and then rehearsed the satisfying or dissatisfying aspects of the meal, or a neutral experience (control), in order to manipulate memory for meal satisfaction. Three hours later participants completed a bogus taste-test to measure food intake and meal memory measures. There was no evidence that memory for general satisfaction with the meal was affected by the rehearsal condition. However, in the dissatisfying rehearsal condition, participants remembered being less satisfied with the satiety-providing effects of the lunch meal than in the satisfying and neutral rehearsal conditions. Snack food consumption did not differ across conditions and there was a small negative correlation between how satiating participants remembered their earlier meal to be and later snack food intake (r = -0.16, p = 0.07). The present study did not produce evidence that memory relating to meal satiety affects later food intake but further research is warranted.