Monitoring human eating patterns during the ingestion of non-liquid foods

Relatively few automatic methods have been developed to monitor human eating parameters which may characterize obese 'eating styles'. The methods which have been developed typically require the use of liquid foods unlike those normally consumed. A method is presented for automatically monitoring human eating during the ingestion of typical semi-solid foods. Data obtained using the semi-solid food yogurt suggest that eating rates vary greatly between people but that these rates may be very consistent across meals. Improvements, adjunctive methods and theoretical implications for applied behavior therapy are discussed.