The sound of eating could reduce your food intake

The noise that your food makes when you're eating could have a significant effect on how much food you eat, according to a new study conducted by researchers at Brigham Young University (BYU) and Colorado State University (CSU).

The so-called "Crunch Effect" suggests that you're likely to eat less if you're more conscious of the sound your food makes while you're eating. With this in mind, watching television at a high volume or listening to loud music could have a significant effect on a person's food consumption habits.

"For the most part, consumers and researchers have overlooked food sound as an important sensory cue in the eating experience," said study co-author Gina Mohr, an assistant professor of marketing at CSU.

Three separate experiments on the effect of food sound suggested that even thinking of eating sounds can decrease consumption, with the intensification of sounds having the same effect.

"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," said Ryan Elder, assistant professor of marketing at BYU's Marriott School of Management. "The effects many not seem huge – one less pretzel – but over the course of a week, month, or year, it could really add up."